Ariel Durant was a Ukrainian-born American researcher and writer. She is best known as the co-author of The Story of Civilization alongside her husband, Will Durant. The couple was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968 for the tenth volume, Rousseau and Revolution.

Ariel was born as Chaya Kaufman in Proskurov, Russian Empire (now Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine) to Jewish parents, Ethel Appel Kaufman and Joseph Kaufman. Her family emigrated to the United States in 1901. She met Will Durant while attending Ferrer Modern School in New York City, where Will was a teacher. The two married on October 31, 1913, when Ariel was just fifteen years old.