A LANDMARK is a prominent or distinguishing feature, object, or event-a guidepost that marks a boundary or provides direction. Accordingly, the landmarks in humanities are those notable works of literature, philosophy, and the arts and those seminal events in history and technology that have influenced the course and character of world culture.
Like the significant experiences in one's personal life or the physical signposts that guide one's travels, these monuments of the human imagination animate the progress of our intellectual journey, even as they serve as sources of inspiration and pleasure.
LANDMARKS in Humanities offers a chronological and selective overview of cultural history. Just as a landmark keeps us from getting lost in a thicket of details, so this survey avoids the exhaustive compilation of facts that can characterize humanities textbooks.
Here, some landmarks are chosen for their universality, others for their beauty, and yet others for their iconic (or symbolic) value. Certain landmarks -- the Statue of Liberty, the Mona Lisa, and the sonnets of Shakespeare -- fulfill more than one of these criteria.
All, however, are significant in shaping the history of world culture. In its selectivity, this book may not include all of those notable events and monuments that others consider essential; indeed, the author's selection of landmarks is likely to differ from that of many readers.
At the least, however, LANDMARKS should provoke students and teachers to nominate (and defend their choice of) cultural markers. The closer we are in actual time to the landmarks we are considering, the more difficult it is to make selective judgments; thus, the final chapters in this book -- those that evaluate the last one hundred years -- are the longest. Only time can tell which of the many monuments of recent decades will assume and retain landmark status.
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2006 McGraw-Hill Higher Education