Arts & Humanities Through the Eras

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Arts & Humanities Through the Eras

by Philip M. Soergel, Edward Bleiberg, James Allan Evans, Kristen Mossler Figg, John Block Friedman (Editors)

SEEING HISTORY FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE. An education in history involves more than facts concerning the rise and fall of kings, the conquest of lands, and the major battles fought between nations. While these events are pivotal to the study of any time period, the cultural aspects are of equal value in understanding the development of societies. Various forms of literature, the philosophical ideas developed, and even the type of clothes worn in a particular era provide important clues about the values of a society, and when these arts and humanities are studied in conjunction with political and historical events a more complete picture of that society is revealed. This inter-disciplinary approach to studying history is at the heart of the Arts and Humanities Through the Eras project.

Early Netherlandish Paintings

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Early Netherlandish Paintings: Rediscovery, Reception, and Research

by Bernhard Ridderbos, Anne van Buren, Henk van Veen (Editors)

In the fifteenth century, a number of master painters, including Jan van Eyck and Roger Campin, flourished in the Netherlands. However, by the early nineteenth century many of their works had been dispersed by the upheavals of the French Revolution. Any contemporary understanding of these artists and their paintings must take into account that historical data about them remains fragmentary and that art historians from different disciplines have approached them in varying ways. Rather than offering a chronological discussion, this book presents early Netherlandish paintings as individual objects that have confronted scholars with countless interpretive challenges. Part One analyzes the style and provenance of each work, the insights gained from it, and the questions that remain, while Part Two is devoted to the history of collecting and of art historical research and interpretation during the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. Part Three addresses how three fields of modern art-historical research - technical examination, archival research into patronage, and iconology - have produced analyses of these artworks. "Early Netherlandish Painting" advances the scholarly dialogue about an important period in European art by assembling the current scholarly research in the field and underscoring the common ground among scholars from different disciplines.

The Crusades: An Encyclopedia

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The Crusades: An Encyclopedia 4 Volume Set

by Alan Murray

The set THE CRUSADES is a 4-volume work of art highly recommended for both high school and college-level libraries as a basic introductory reference. 1,000 A-Z entries and translated texts on individual crusades and crusaders reflect the contributions of over a hundred researchers from over twenty countries, and are accompanied by maps, bibliographic references, and black and white illustrations. It's the only work to embrace the entire crusade movement from the 11th century through modern times - and all throughout Europe into the Middle East, and represents the latest scholarship, organized by a UK lecturer in medieval studies. A highly recommended, basic reference for any school where Crusades history is studied.

The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity

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The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity

by Stephanie Lynn Budin

In this study, Stephanie Budin demonstrates that sacred prostitution, the sale of a person's body for sex in which some or all of the money earned was devoted to a deity or a temple, did not exist in the ancient world. Reconsidering the evidence from the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman texts, and the Early Christian authors, Budin shows that the majority of sources that have traditionally been understood as pertaining to sacred prostitution actually have nothing to do with this institution. The few texts that are usually invoked on this subject are, moreover, terribly misunderstood. Furthermore, contrary to many current hypotheses, the creation of the myth of sacred prostitution has nothing to do with notions of accusation or the construction of a decadent, Oriental "Other." Instead, the myth has come into being as a result of more than 2,000 years of misinterpretations, false assumptions, and faulty methodology. The study of sacred prostitution is, effectively, a historiographical reckoning.

Celtic Culture : A Historical Encyclopedia

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Celtic Culture : A Historical Encyclopedia (Five Volume Set)

by John Koch

The most comprehensive reference resource on Celtic culture; an encyclopedia written by and for scholars, yet accessible to all. From the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies in Aberystwyth, John T. Koch, one of the world's foremost Celtic scholars, has assembled work from leading researchers worldwide to produce the first encyclopedic treatment of the Celts and Celtic scholarship. This encyclopedia covers the entirety of the Celtic world, both through time and across geography. Although emphasizing the areas where Celtic languages and traditions survive into the present, the work does not slight the reaches of the Celtic empire, which was the largest language and cultural group on earth prior to the rise of Rome. In some 1,500 articles, many representing original research by the finest Celtic scholars, the work covers the Celts from prehistory to the present, giving comprehensive treatment to all topics from myth to music, religion to rulers, literature to language, government to games, and all topics in between. Entry into the rich world of Celtic scholarship has been difficult: The available information must be teased out of dense scholarly tomes or lightweight books emphasizing such popular elements of Celtic tradition as wee people, Druids, and blue-painted pagans. While this work treats those topics within its broad scope, the information is presented as scholarship, without the pop patina.

Geometric Greece: 900-700 B.C.

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Geometric Greece: 900-700 B.C.

by J.N Coldstream

Geometric Greece has long been the standard work on this absorbing period, which saw the evolution of the Greek city-states, the composition of the Homeric poems, the rise of the great Panhellenic sanctuaries and the first exodus of Greek colonists to southern Italy and Sicily.Professor Coldstream has now fully updated his comprehensive survey with a substantial new chapter on the abundant discoveries and developments made since the book's first publication.The text is presented in three main sections: the passing of the dark ages, c. 900-770 BC; the Greek renaissance, c. 770-700 BC, covered region by region, and the final part on life in eighth century Greece. Its geographical coverage in the Mediterranean ranges from Syria to Sicily, and the detailed archaeological evidence is amplified by reference to literary sources.Highly illustrated, including images of several finds never previously published, this is the essential handbook for anyone studying early Greek antiquity.

Paul Virilio - The Original Accident

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The Original Accident

by Paul Virilio

The future once promised the certainty of a better life for all, but now the future is full of uncertainty, danger and fear. Our lives are surrounded by the threats, imaginary or real, posed by terrorist outrages, natural catastrophes and disasters of all kinds. The future is overshadowed by the nightmare of an outmoded humanity overwhelmed by a catastrophe of its own making, a kind of catastrophic grande finale that would mirror the original accident ndash; the Big Bang ndash; that some scientists believe created the universe. A biting meditation on Progress ndash; technoscientific progress, at any cost and without any limits ndash; this book defines the ways in which postindustrial science has merged with out-and-out hyperterrorism to threaten the foundations of Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian civilisation, and the future of the planet with them, through innovation of mass catastrophes that are part and parcel of its panoply of inventions. Urging us to face up to the consequences of our brave-new-world technologies, Virilio calls for the creation of a Museum of the Accident to fight our habituation to horror and violence, and our daily overexposure to terror, in the name, not of some preventive war, but of a preventive intelligence that would help us deal with both natural and artificial disasters.