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.
