Axial Age
German sociologist Max Weber played an important role in Jaspers' thinking. Shmuel Eisenstadt argues in the introduction to "The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations" that Weber's work in his ', ' and "Ancient Judaism" provided a background for the importance of the period, and notes parallels with Eric Voegelin's "Order and History". Wider acknowledgement of Jaspers' work came after it was presented at a conference and published in "Daedalus" in 1975, and Jaspers' suggestion that the period was uniquely transformative generated important discussion among other scholars, such as Johann Arnason. In literature, Gore Vidal in his novel "Creation" covers much of this Axial Age through the fictional perspective of a Persian adventurer.