Exploring the Humanities: Creativity and Culture in the West, Vol. 1

Introduction to the Humanities, Volume One provides a comprehensive, color and illustration-filled compilation of the history of civilization. Volume One encompasses the development of art, culture, society, architecture and religion during prehistory and the ancient Near East through the Renaissance periods. The volume provides extensive social and cultural background material reinforced with fascinating information on key persons, events, ideas and inventions of the time period to provides readers with a €˜you are there€ experience. Cross-Cultural Influence features highlight influences exchanged between different cultures to give readers a look at contact and artistic exchanges between cultures. Thematic Parallels sections compare universal themes over different time periods and in different places across the world, providing readers with an extensive and fascinating look at humanity through the ages. Volume One examines the following time periods: prehistory;  the ancient near east; ancient Egypt; the Aegean world; the emergence of historical Greece; ancient Greece; ancient Rome; pagan cults, Judaism, and the rise of Christianity; the Byzantine Empire and the development of Islam; the early Middle Ages and the development of Romanesque; the development and expansion of gothic; the transition from gothic to early renaissance; the early renaissance in Italy and northern Europe and the high renaissance in Italy and early mannerism. For those interested in a comprehensive view of humanities throughout the ages.