The Humanistic Tradition: Prehistory to the Early Modern World

by Gloria K. Fiero

" 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. Our professors praise its accuracy and scope and our students unanimously say it is their favorite textbook." — Sonia Sorrell, Pepperdine University The Humanistic Tradition features a flexible, topical approach that helps students understand humankind's creative legacy as a continuum rather than as a series of isolated events. This widely acclaimed interdisciplinary survey offers a global perspective, countless illustrations, and more than 150 literary sources. Available in multiple formats, The Humanistic Tradition explores the political, economic, and social contexts of human culture, providing a global and multicultural perspective which helps students better understand the relationship between the West and other world cultures.

Genres: History, Philosophy, School, Nonfiction, Politics, Humanities, Textbooks

544 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

This textbook is full of errors of fact & decades old interpretations that have been dismissed by specialists.

The interpretations of Israelite, ancient Jewish, & ancient Christian traditions are outdated & antisemitic.

I can not in good conscience assign this book ever again. McGraw-Hill, the editors, & the author should be embarrassed by this book.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the textbook for my humanities class on ancient and medieval western culture. This topic in general is of interest to me anyway, so I might be biased, but I found the textbook pretty interesting to read. It's something that I would have read on my own if I had come across it outside of a class setting. It's well written and isn't too dry, and touches on a lot of interesting things in regards to history and culture. Naturally since it covers such a wide breadth of history, it doesn't go into anything too deeply, but it's a great introduction to a lot of things and if someone has an interest in this subject it would give them a jumping off point to do their further research. My only real complaint is that there seemed to be a bit too much focus on Christianity. I know that Christianity is a huge part of history but a lot of it seemed to be written by Christians for Christians, and I would have preferred it to be a bit more secular than that. But it's not so overt that non-Christians will be turned off by it either.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected more from the text, but there are a few good concise summaries of the cultural shifts during the medieval and Renaissance periods in Europe. Overall, this volume has more value as a collection of first-hand source materials from each period and major world culture, including literature, poetry, art, architecture and music. I would continue to recommend Gardner's for a more insightful and beautifully written overview of the Western arts, and Fazio et al for history of architecture.

[Aemok · Rating 1 out of 5]

All of the books in this series are not well organized and leave gaps were there should be substantial information. Overall they weren’t worth the money I spent (particularly when having to buy new editions for classes because a picture here or there was changed).

They are ok if you are looking for very vague reviews of the movements and nothing more.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as part of a Humanities class, and as text books go, this one was pretty good. It's well organized, not too high-brow, and contains plenty of detail without too much commentary or opinion pushing. I'd recommend it for someone interesting in a high level look at the earliest civilizations.

[Alberto]

mesopotamia

[Tomy]

es una mierda

[Sophia Cao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Art History textbook