Culture: The Story of Us from Cave Art to K-Pop by Martin Puchner

 Dr. Puchner is a philosopher and teacher who received his PhD from Harvard. In this book he examines culture from the earliest cave paintings to modern time, showing how key events and people transmit cultural ideas from one people to another. He discusses a wide range of aspects of culture from all over the world.  There are chapters on Egypt, Greece and Rome, Aztecs, Ethiopian Christians, ancient Muslim libraries, the cultural exchange between China and Japan, and many more.  His main premise is that major cultural changes usually occur when one culture bumps up against another. He believes that these cultural clashes drive innovation and flowering of human creative potential.  

I picked this title because I was a Humanities major in college, and part of me still feels like a humanities nerd.  I didn't really expect to learn a lot of new ideas from the book, but was interested in refreshing my memory of topics I enjoyed in my studies.  Wow, was I wrong. I was bowled over by this book.  It totally made me rethink the Humanities education I received 30 years ago.  It made me realize how much my education was heavily biased toward the Western cultural ideal.  In my classes we discussed Egypt, Greece, Rome, European Middle Ages, Renaissance and Enlightenment.  I took one class on Asian humanities (an elective), but learned nothing about the huge influence of the Arab nations, South America, or Africa.   As I was listening to the book I also thought a lot about how I have always valued culture.  Like many in a dominant culture, I consider art and writing of high quality if it matches my culture's art and writing. The book opened my eyes a little to my own cultural bias. I don't know how many would get as much out of this book as I did, but it was paradigm shifting for me, so I am giving it a starred review. (2023, 384 p)