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Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art to K-Pop Audiobook
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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.
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“Puchner is an adept storyteller who uses narrative to show that the common trait among all human cultures is skillful stealing in service of explanation.”
— New York Times Book Review
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“Elegantly written and full of erudite lore, this vibrant history illuminates the inveterate human yearning for expression.”
— Publishers Weekly
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A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice of the Week
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About Martin Puchner
Martin Puchner is the Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. His prizewinning books cover subjects from philosophy to the arts, and his bestselling six-volume Norton Anthology of World Literature and his HarvardX MOOC (massive open online course) have brought four thousand years of literature to students across the globe.
About John Sackville
John Sackville is an English actor and voice artist. He studied at St. Andrews University and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. He has since acted on stage and on camera and has narrated a number of audiobooks, computer games, documentaries, and commercials.