Culture : the story of us, from cave art to K-pop / Martin Puchner.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2023]Copyright date: ©2023Edition: First editionDescription: xxiv, 349 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780393867992
- 0393867994
- Story of us, from cave art to K-pop
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Dr. James Carlson Library | NonFiction | 909 P977 | Checked out | 07/01/2024 | 33111011043383 | |||
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Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 909 P977 | Available | 33111010971188 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
What good are the arts? Why should we care about the past? For millennia, humanity has sought to understand and transmit to future generations not just the "know-how" of life, but the "know-why"--the meaning and purpose of our existence, as expressed in art, architecture, religion, and philosophy. This crucial passing down of knowledge has required the radical integration of insights from the past and from other cultures. In Culture, acclaimed author, professor, and public intellectual Martin Puchner takes us on a breakneck tour through pivotal moments in world history, providing a global introduction to the arts and humanities in one engaging volume.
From Nefertiti's lost city to the plays of Wole Soyinka; from the theaters of ancient Greece to Chinese travel journals to Arab and Aztec libraries; from a South Asian statuette found at Pompeii to a time capsule left behind on the Moon, Puchner tells the gripping story of human achievement through our collective losses and rediscoveries, power plays and heroic journeys, innovations, imitations, and appropriations. More than a work of history, Culture is an archive of humanity's most monumental junctures and a guidebook for the future of us humans as a creative species. Witty, erudite, and full of wonder, Puchner argues that the humanities are (and always have been) essential to the transmission of knowledge that drives the efforts of human civilization.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-336) and index.
Preface: How culture works -- Introduction: Inside the Chauvet Cave, 35,000 BCE -- Queen Nefertiti and her faceless god -- Plato burns his tragedy and invents a history -- King Ashoka sends a message to the future -- A south Asian goddess in Pompeii -- A Buddhist pilgrim in search of ancient traces -- The Pillow Book and some perils of cultural diplomacy -- When Baghdad became a storehouse of wisdom -- The Queen of Ethiopia welcomes the raiders of the ark -- One Christian mystic and the three revivals of Europe -- The Aztec capital faces its European enemies and admirers -- A Portuguese sailor writes a global epic -- Enlightenment in Saint-Domingue and in a Parisian salon -- George Eliot promotes the science of the past -- A Japanese wave takes the world by storm -- The drama of Nigerian independence -- Epilogue: Will there be a library in 2114 CE?
"What good are the arts? Why should we care about the past? For millennia, humanity has sought to understand and transmit to future generations not just the "know-how" of life, but the "know-why"--The meaning and purpose of our existence, as expressed in art, architecture, religion, and philosophy. This crucial passing down of knowledge has required the radical integration of insights from the past and from other cultures. In Culture, acclaimed author, professor, and public intellectual Martin Puchner takes us on a breakneck tour through pivotal moments in world history, providing a global introduction to the arts and humanities in one engaging volume"-- Provided by publisher