The Humanistic Tradition: The Early Modern World to the Present

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, Art History, School

560 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Edith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this textbook even though we only hop-skipped through it for our semester’s work. I actually considered buying it to keep it around instead of returning it to our rental site. It covered art/paintings, architecture, music, and literature from the Renaissance to the present time…so you can see the tremendous scope it attempts to teach. Way too much for one semester. You would need a one-to-two year course to do this book justice.

The work for this course had us really immersing ourselves in several exhibitions downtown at the National Gallery of Art and the African Gallery of Art. We covered an exhibition on “Canaletto and his Rivals” and one on “Gauguin: Maker of Myth”. Also had to take tours and visit both the East and West Building of the National Gallery with early art and then modern art and write up papers for them. One of the exhibitions I enjoyed most was the Chester Dale Collection featuring paintings from the Impressionists to Modernism…Renoir, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne, and many more…here is a link to visiting the exhibition online: http://arthistory.about.com/od/from_e...

I came away from this course wanting to learn more (is that not one of the best goals of a course?). One of the more remarkable aspects of all this art is how much painting has changed in recent history, beginning in the late 1800s with the Impressionists which led quickly into Cubism and then to Abstract Expressionism where the painting is but a splatter of color (with a lot of other -isms stuck in between these major styles as well). Some of the really modern stuff makes me shake my head and wonder WHAT is going on. However, I acquired a real appreciation of Picasso, his ability to paint in different styles equally well, and his prolific body of work.

The students received extra credit by searching for sculptures by David Smith and having their pictures taken with them. Odd stuff mostly. John and I found about 15 in various places downtown- in different galleries and outdoor sculpture gardens. That was fun.

A painter which particularly intrigues me (but who was not mentioned in our course) is Frank Stella. I like his work because it feels like quilt art, something that could be pieced…and it is colorful. Swirling in the back of my mind is the possibility of utilizing his designs and doing something with fabric someday…hmm….

[Odaliz Ortiz]

necesito el libro para una clase

[Sierra Mcmillian]

its good