Civilization & Culture Books - Page 2

Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World

Timothy Brook

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Really surprised me with its excellence 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Every once in a while, a book comes along that really surprises me with its excellence - Vermeer's Hat is one of those books. What this book is is a look into the seventeenth century, but as a hook, the book uses eight seventeenth century works of art, that each tells us something about the era in which it was created. And, what makes the book so very interesting is that it covers events and phenomenon that are rarely discussed in other books, such the movement of goods between Europe, Spanish America and China, the spread of tobacco, and so much more.

Overall, I found this book to be very entertaining and very interesting - it kept me up reading when I should have been asleep! If you are interested in the seventeenth century, then you will find this to be a very good resource. Heck, even if you are just interested in history, you will find this to be an excellent read, one that will well reward the time you spent reading it. I give this book my highest recommendations!

Editorial Review:

“Elegant and quietly important…Brook does more than merely sketch the beginnings of globalization and highlight the forces that brought our modern world into being; rather, he offers a timely reminder of humanity’s interdependence.”—Seattle Times

A painting shows a military officer in a Dutch sitting room, talking to a laughing girl. I n another, a woman at a window weighs pieces of silver. Vermeer’s images captivate us with their beauty and mystery: What stories lie behind these stunningly rendered moments? As T imothy Brook shows us, these pictures, which seem so intimate, actually offer a remarkable view of a rapidly expanding world. Moving outward from Vermeer’s studio, Brook traces the web of trade that was spreading across the globe. Vermeer’s Hat shows how the urge to acquire foreign goods was refashioning the world more powerfully than we have yet understood.

The Humanistic Tradition, Book 3: The European Renaissance , The Reformation, and Global Encounter

Gloria K. Fiero, Gloria Fiero

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Editorial Review:

The explosion of creativity that marked the European Renaissance provoked an unprecedented age of exploration and of cross-cultural encounter. From the depths of the Black Plague to the heights of Shakespeare's sonnets, book three of The Humanistic Tradition provides an exciting portrait of this period.

In a compelling counterpoint to her description of the Renaissance, Fiero devotes a section to the cultures that came into increasing contact with the burgeoning West - the kingdoms of West Africa and the societies of North, Central, and South America.

Western Civilization

Jackson J. Spielvogel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fascinating! Comprehensive! 5 out of 5 stars.
43 of 43 people found this review helpful.

I purchased my first copy of this text several years from a college bookstore, not for a class, but because I picked it up, began browsing, and couldn't bear to put it down. Although textbooks are not usually written for pleasure reading, I've found Spielvogel's book to be truly well-written and efficiently designed. Maps, chronologies (timelines), and numerous illustrations and sidebars make the text inviting and accessible.

One of my favorite features is the inclusion of excerpts from original source documents. It's fascinating to read the writings of a medieval merchant of Paris on the subject of marriage, or excerpts from the court record of the trial of Joan of Arc. It provides a vivid, memorable glimpse of life in a different place and time.

I used this textbook to prepare for the Western Civilization CLEP, and I passed with no difficulty at all, earning 6 credits toward my bachelor's degree. Western Civ is a huge topic, and Dr. Spielvogel has done a terrific job of making it not only accessible, but enjoyable. I recommend this book!

Editorial Review:

Comprehensive coverage of Western Civilization organized into 30 chapters. Covers ancient times through the present. Single-author text written by an award-winning teacher who writes as well as he teaches. This best-selling text features excellent coverage of social, cultural, religious, political, economic, and women's history. This edition also includes more material on women in history integrated throughout the text. Separate sections in most chapters titled Daily Life In ... presents everyday activities of both individuals and society. Primary Source Documents (8-9 per chapter) give students access to the kind of material historians draw on in doing their research. Timelines have been improved from the previous editions and appear in each chapter. Extensive supplement package includes document exercises, map exercises, and map commentary with acetates, a documents reader, a student study tips booklet, color slides, and much more.

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World

David W. Anthony

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded these original Indo-European speakers, and reveals how their domestication of horses and use of the wheel spread language and transformed civilization.

Linking prehistoric archaeological remains with the development of language, David Anthony identifies the prehistoric peoples of central Eurasia's steppe grasslands as the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European, and shows how their innovative use of the ox wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange. He explains how they spread their traditions and gave rise to important advances in copper mining, warfare, and patron-client political institutions, thereby ushering in an era of vibrant social change. Anthony also describes his fascinating discovery of how the wear from bits on ancient horse teeth reveals the origins of horseback riding.

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries--the source of the Indo-European languages and English--and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.

Chariots of the Gods

Erich von Daniken

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Total reviews: 146 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Erich von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods is a work of monumental importance--the first book to introduce the shocking theory that ancient Earth had been visited by aliens. This world-famous bestseller has withstood the test of time, inspiring countless books and films, including the author's own popular sequel, The Eyes of the Sphinx. But here is where it all began--von Daniken's startling theories of our earliest encounters with alien worlds, based upon his lifelong studies of ancient ruins, lost cities, potential spaceports, and a myriad of hard scientific facts that point to extraterrestrial intervention in human history. Most incredible of all, however, is von Daniken's theory that we ourselves are the descendants of these galactic pioneers--and the archeological discoveries that prove it... * An alien astronaut preserved in a pyramid
* Thousand-year-old spaceflight navigation charts
* Computer astronomy from Incan and Egyptian ruins
* A map of the land beneath the ice cap of Antarctica
* A giant spaceport discovered in the Andes
Includes remarkable photos that document mankind's first contact with aliens at the dawn of civilization.

Western Civilization (Volume II Since 1550)

Jackson J. Spielvogel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Revionist History 1 out of 5 stars.
9 of 16 people found this review helpful.

After being required to read this text for a class, I bought two other history books to which I could compare this one. I thought that Spielvogel was leaving out chunks of history, and revising the ones that he included, and I wanted to double check my facts before making any accusations. Well, boy was I right. This book makes the Publisher's tag line, "Changing the Way the World Learns" seem a little too true..

If you DO get this book, here are some things to look out for:

1. He is wrong on just about everything that has to do with art or music. He cites obscure artists and names them as the most popular, most of them had Christian themed work.

2. He glorifies Hitler and the Nazis and makes the Holocaust seem like nothing but a minor glitch in history.

3. The author has a degree in Reformation History and seems to be unable to help himself from relating every single event in history to religion. So keep in mind that Voltaire had more to offer history than an anti-Christian revisionist account of the fall of the Roman Empire, as Spielvogel states.

If I were you, I'd buy a different history book to read as well as this one, if this is required for a course. Preferably one that was published for the first time in the thirties or forties and has been updated since, so that its more clear it isn't revionist history. This one was first published in 2003.

Honestly, if I could give this book less than one star I would, but there's no such option on amazon.com...

Editorial Review:

Comprehensive coverage of Western Civilization since 1550 includes Chapters 15-30 of the larger text. Begins with a 10-page preface summarizing the events leading up to this point in history.

The Humanistic Tradition, Book 6: Modernism, Globalism, and the Information Age

Gloria K. Fiero, Gloria Fiero

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Nice !! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Ordered and received the text within 7 days. Paid 1/2 of what I would have at the campus bookstore. New and in plastic wrap. 100% satisfied !!

I've never read this either.... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

However giving the book a one star review based on the fact that you had a bad experience with Amazon is unacceptable. Your poor rating hurts the author much more then it hurts Amazon. Many a casual browser will not even browse further past a one star rating. And despite your experience many a writer makes a great deal of money from sales on this site.

The Humanistic tradition 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

At first glance the book looks like a mess of pictures thrown in to fill space. Once you start reading the text the contents makes sense.I have actually come across some of the subject matter in my everyday life, a lot of things that would of gone unnoticed.

Editorial Review:

Beginning with the startling twentieth century developments in physics and the Freudian revolution, this book of The Humanistic Tradition addresses 100 years of precipitous change. The exciting conclusion to the six-book series, Modernism, Globalism, and the Information Age can also be used as a literary or cultural supplement to courses on the art or the history of the period from 1900 to 2000.

The West in the World

Dennis Sherman

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The Wars of Gods and Men: Book III of the Earth Chronicles (The Earth Chronicles)

Zecharia Sitchin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Wars of Gods and Men: Book III of the Earth Chronicles 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A great Esoteric read of mankinds hereitage to the pre - Sumerian stage in mankinds forgotten past. Good historical text that captures the era when mankind was in communication with his Spirt, creation and realized his Cosmic destiny.

The wars of Gods and Men 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Again anything this man writes I endorse as he was the 1st to make me think of how, why what and where we came from as man.

Editorial Review:

Thousands of years ago, the Earth was a battlefield. These were the wars that would shape man's destiny—terrible conflicts that began lifetimes earlier on another planet.

Parting the mists of time and myth, the internationally renowned scholar Zecharia Sitchin takes us back in this volume to the violent beginnings of the human story, when gods—not men—ruled the Earth.

In a spellbinding reconstruction of epic events preserved in legends and ancient writings, he traces the conflicts that began on another world, continued on Earth, and culminated in the use of nuclear weapons—an event recorded in the Bible as the upheaval of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Humanistic Tradition (Book 1: The First Civilizations and the Classical Legacy) (Bk. 1)

Gloria K. Fiero

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Poor source of detail 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 8 people found this review helpful.

After using this book (as well as books 2 and 3) as texts for a class, I must say that I found all of them to be overrated and a poor choice of reference. The volumes contain nice photographs but are ineffective as textbooks. For example, as material is introduced a sudden segue to a new subject leaves the reader cold. I would not recommend any of this series to those who need detail. These books support a teaching methodology that relies upon mundane memorization of incidental information rather than comprehensive study.

Alexandria, Egypt was the Mind & Soul of Western Tradition 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

"The wisdom of the Egyptians was a proverb with the Greeks, who felt themselves children beside this ancient race." Plato, Timaeus, 22B, (Quoted from Will Durant, the Story of civilization:I)



Early Civilizations:
As summarized by Will Durant, the development of agriculture helped people to settle in villages and create communities, where the early civilizations gradually developed. Ancient people developed their specialized trades, arts, and crafts, establishing an economy based on trade, which led to the first civilizations. Since there were but few written records, as in the case of ancient Egypt, archaeologists have patiently recreated the history of the first civilizations by putting together artifacts and studying ruins which have been discovered over time. A cardinal characteristic of civilizations was that each had a leader, ruler, priests, and civil administrators. It has been discovered also that early civilizations were tinted by a class system of rich and poor people. First great civilizations were built around rivers, which were crucial to their development, and became a catalyst for the growth of agricultural civilization.

The Humanistic Tradition:
This colorful work is a thoughtful, methodical topical approach to the first classical civilizations that helps not only humanity students but all seekers of common global experience understand humanity's creative traditions as a continuum in space and time, rather than isolated events by human races or nations. This compelling acclaimed survey offers a global perspective, through a gifted editor of many vivid illustrations, integrating an amazing ocean of literary sources. It explores the sociopolitical, economic, and artistic contexts of human culture, providing an analytical perspective of the global multicultural quest which humanity pursued. Gloria Fiero's popular work offers the reader an opportunity to be introduced to 'The Humanistic Tradition' clearly demonstrating the close relationship between the culture of the past and sophisticated life and rich culture of the present. The book explores the arts and thought of the West in relation to ideas of other world cultures, from the ancient mid-East to the modern far East.

Ancient World's Light:
The above being said, I would like to caution the reader that the colorful author, and creative editor adopts a rather questionably biased theory, lately in great doubt (Ps. see: Barnel's Black Athena,) that Greek philosophy is the foundation of the Humanistic tradition, at least/ even in the West. Late Medieval Alexandria, Egypt was no doubt, the "Mind of Western Tradition". Eugene Holley Jr. expressed it beautifully, "Historians of philosophy have been wont to begin their story with the Greeks. It may be that we are all mistaken; for among the most ancient fragments left to us by the Egyptians are writings that belong under the rubric of moral philosophy. The Egyptians were the light of the ancient world. They produced many early medical instruments, designed the world's first step pyramid, and laid the empirical groundwork for scientific reasoning. Akhenaton, the rebel pharaoh, is cited as "the Father of Monotheism." Asante stresses throughout the book that these developments came from a confluence of African cultures, and not from other parts of the world. "The practice of the African philosophers along the Nile was a practice of maintaining Maat [the principle of truth, order, and justice] in every aspect of life," he writes. "If we could only learn from them the value of harmony, balance, and righteousness, we would be on our way toward a revival of the spirit of human victory."

Sonia's fine Review:
"The Humanistic Tradition is quite simply the finest book of its type. Fiero manages to integrate the political, cultural, and social history of the world into one coherent and fascinating whole. It is a masterpiece of scholarship... balanced, interesting, easy to read, and consummately beautiful." -- Sonia Sorrell, Pepperdine University

Editorial Review:

Designed for the Introduction to Humanities curriculum, this first volume of The Humanistic Tradition guides students from the from Paleolithic through Greco-Roman culture and the arts of India and China. It is a brief, exciting text that can also serve as a colorful and informative supplement in courses on prehistory, classical history, or Greek and Roman literature.