The Western Humanities: Volume I: Beginnings Through the Renaissance

This chronologically organized introduction to the Western Humanities (art, music, history, literature, and drama) establishes the historical context of each era before the arts are discussed. More than 600 illustrations appear throughout the text, and Personal Perspectives boxes bring to life the issues and events of the day. The Western Humanities is available in a complete single text or in two volumes. Volume I covers prehistory through the Renaissance; Volume II covers the Renaissance to the Present.

Historical Coverage: The treatment of historical background, more extensive than in other humanities books, provides a coherent narrative that emphasizes the continuity of Western history. The cultural works are set in an interpretive historical framework that helps students understand their meaning.
Current Day Relevancy: Each chapter ends with a brief section describing the cultural legacy of that era, so students can see clearly how certain ideas have influenced past eras and how they have evolved into the present day.
Special Topical Coverage:
Judaism: Chapter 6 presents Judaic history, culture, and literature, as well as a discussion of early Christian culture.
Islam: Chapter 8 includes an extended discussion and analysis of Islamic history and culture.
Postmodernism: Chapter 21 brings us up to the present with an analysis of the events of the early 1990s and a discussion of the diverse artists and writers who express themselves in the global style known as Postmodernism
Coverage of women: With each edition, the authors have expanded the coverage of women's role in the humanities. Where appropriate, the text discusses social constraints that may have held women back in a given era.
Extensive Art Program: More than 450 illustrations (250 of them in color) are accompanied by extended captions that provide details on the creators, the meaning of the artworks, or linkages with other works (complementing the material included in the text itself). Diagrams and line drawings offer additional visual explication where necessary.
Windows on the World: See "New to This Edition"!
A new primer for studying the humanities: See "New to This Edition"!
Maps and Timelines: Maps appear in every chapter (23 in all) to help orient the student geographically, and timelines (46) are used generously throughout the text to help orient the student chronologically.
Personal Perspectives: Boxes found throughout the book provide personal perspectives on the issues and events of the day, personalizing the past with expressions of the whole range of human concerns, experiences, and emotions.
Effective Pedagogy: Key terms appear in bold type when they are introduced in the text and are defined in the glossary at the end of the book. New terms are listed at the end of each chapter. Pronunciation guides follow the words and proper nouns students might find more difficult.
Flexibility: With the core text, the split volumes, and the readers (Readings in the Western Humanities, Volumes I and II, Fourth Edition) there are many ways the book can be packaged for convenience and pricing flexibility (see MVPs included at the end of this fact sheet!).
Windows on the World: These timelines included throughout the text (12 in all) survey the arts and humanities of the nonwestern world, ranging chronologically from prehistory to the present. This feature treats major events of regional cultures in Africa; Andean, Mesoamerican, and North American Indian cultures in the Americas; and China, India, and Japan. The "Windows" include almost 50 art and architecture illustrations.
A new primer for studying the humanities follows the introduction. This section provides basic frameworks for the students to apply in learning about the various aspects of the humanities. The primer eases students into a subject matter they might, at first, find somewhat intimidating.
Chapter 13 has been retitled to reflect a more accurate chronology: "Northern Humanism, the Northern Renaissance, the Religious Reformations, and Late Mannerism." Material added to this chapter includes a new section on the Golden Age of Spanish Literature, which includes the writer Cervantes and the dramatist Lope de Vega.
Added material in Chapter 21 reflects more contemporary aspects of society, including an expanded discussion of scientific breakthroughs that includes the discovery of DNA.
Nine new Personal Perspectives offer accounts by Amenemope, Solon, Marcus (Cicero's Son), Henry Knighton, Samuel Pepys, Charlotte Bronte, and Toni Morrison.
New Art Pieces: More than 50 new artworks complement the new edition. Examples include "Torso of Miletus"; the Dura Europas Synagogue; Kutubiyya Minbar from Marrakech, Morocco; "Leisure Time at the Bath" from the Medieval Housebook; Fragonard's "The Lover Crowned"; Nam June Paik's "My Faust (Stations)"; and Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.
The representation of women and ethnic writers and artists in the text has been strengthened, with the inclusion of, among others, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Nam June Paik, and Frederick Douglass.