1 Mesopotamia: Gods, Rulers, and the Social Order
Looking Ahead
The Land between the Two Rivers
The Gods of Mesopotamia
The Rulers of Mesopotamia
The Social Order
The Arts in Mesopotamia
The Iron Age
The Hebrews
Empires of the Iron Age
Looking Back

2 Africa: Gods, Rulers, and the Social Order
Looking Ahead
Africa: Ancient Egypt
The Gods of Ancient Egypt
The Rulers of Ancient Egypt
The Social Order
The Arts in Ancient Egypt
Africa: The Sudan
Looking Back

3 India, China, and the Americas
Looking Ahead
Ancient India
Ancient China
The Americas
Looking Back

4 Greece: Humanism and the Speculative Leap
Looking Ahead
Bronze Age Civilizations of the Aegean
The Heroic Age
The Greek City-State and the Persian Wars
Athens and the Greek Golden Age
The Individual and the Community
Greek Philosophy: The Speculative Leap
Humanist Philosophy
Looking Back

5 The Classical Style
Looking Ahead
The Classical Style
The Evolution of the Classical Style
The Classical Style in Poetry
The Classical Style in Music and Dance
The Diffusion of the Classical Style: The Hellenistic Age
Looking Back

6 Rome: The Rise to Empire
Looking Ahead
The Roman Rise to Empire
The Roman Contribution to Literature
The Arts of the Roman Empire
The Fall of Rome
Looking Back

7 China: The Rise to Empire
Looking Ahead
Confucius and the Classics
The Chinese Rise to Empire
The Literary Contributions of Imperial China
The Visual Arts and Music
Looking Back

8 A Flowering of Faith: Christianity and Buddhism
Looking Ahead
The Background to Christianity
The Rise of Christianity
The Teachings of Paul
The Spread of Christianity
The Rise of Buddhism
The Spread of Buddhism
Looking Back

9 The Language of Faith: Symbolism and the Arts
Looking Ahead
The Christian Identity
The Buddhist Identity
Looking Back

10 The Islamic World: Religion and Culture
Looking Ahead
The Religion of Islam
The Spread of Islam
Islamic Culture
Looking Back

11 Patterns of Medieval Life
Looking Ahead
The Germanic Tribes
Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance
Early Medieval Culture
High Medieval Culture
Looking Back

12 Christianity and the Medieval Mind
Looking Ahead
The Christian Way of Life and Death
The Medieval Church
Looking Back

13 The Medieval Synthesis in the Arts
Looking Ahead
The Romanesque Church
The Gothic Cathedral
Medieval Painting
Medieval Music
Looking Back

14 The World Beyond the West: India, China, and Japan
Looking Ahead
India
China
Japan
Looking Back

15 Adversity and Challenge: The Fourteenth-Century Transition
Looking Ahead
Europe in Transition
Literature in Transition
Art and Music in Transition
Looking Back

16 Classical Humanism in the Age of the Renaissance
Looking Ahead
Italy: Birthplace of the Renaissance
Classical Humanism
Renaissance Women
Machiavelli
Looking Back

17 Renaissance Artists: Disciples of Nature, Masters of Invention
Looking Ahead
Renaissance Art and Patronage
The Early Renaissance
The High Renaissance
The Music of the Renaissance
Looking Back

18 Cross-Cultural Encounters: Asia, Africa, and the Americas
Looking Ahead
Global Travel and Trade
The African Cultural Heritage
The Arts of Africa
Cross-Cultural Encounter
The Americas
Early Empires in the Americas
Cross-Cultural Encounter
Looking Back

19 Protest and Reform: The Waning of the Old Order
Looking Ahead
The Temper of Reform
The Protestant Reformation
Northern Renaissance Art
Sixteenth-Century Literature
Shakespeare
Looking Back

20 The Catholic Reformation and the Baroque Style
Looking Ahead
The Catholic Reformation
Catholicism's Global Reach
Literature and the Catholic Reformation
The Visual Arts and the Catholic Reformation
The Baroque Style
Baroque Music
Looking Back

21 Absolute Power and the Aristocratic Style
Looking Ahead
The Aristocratic Style in Europe
Music and Dance at the Court of Louis XIV
Seventeenth-Century French Literature
Absolute Power and the Aristocratic Style Beyond Europe
Absolute Power and the Aristocratic Style in China
Absolute Power and the Aristocratic Style in Japan
Looking Back

22 The Baroque in the Protestant North
Looking Ahead
The Rise of the English Commonwealth
The King James Bible
English Literature of the Seventeenth Century
The London of Christopher Wren
Protestant Devotionalism in the Netherlands
The Music of the Protestant North
Looking Back

23 The Scientific Revolution and the New Learning Looking Ahead
The Scientific Revolution
The New Learning
Newton's Scientific Synthesis
The Impact of the Scientific Revolution on Art
Baroque Instrumental Music
Looking Back

24 The Enlightenment: The Promise of Reason
Looking Ahead
Liberty and Political Theory
The Birth of Economic Theory
The Philosophes
The Crusade for Progress
Enlightenment Literature
Looking Back

25 The Limits of Reason
Looking Ahead
The Industrial Revolution
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Satire: Weapon of the Enlightenment
Rousseau's Revolt against Reason
Kant's Mind/World Revolution
The Revolutions of the Late Eighteenth Century
Looking Back
26 Eighteenth-Century Art, Music, and Society
Looking Ahead
The Rococo Style
Eighteenth-Century Genre Painting
Eighteenth-Century Neoclassicism
Eighteenth-Century Western Music
Looking Back

27 The Romantic View of Nature
Looking Ahead
The Progress of Industrialization
Early Nineteenth-Century Thought
Nature and the Natural in European Literature
Nature and the Natural in Asian Literature
Romantic Landscape Painting
American Romanticism
Looking Back

28 The Romantic Hero
Looking Ahead
Nationalism and the Hero
The Promethean Hero
Goethe's Faust: The Quintessential Romantic Hero
Romantic Love and Romantic Stereotypes
Looking Back

29 The Romantic Style in Art and Music
Looking Ahead
Heroic Themes in Art
Trends in Mid Nineteenth-Century Architecture
The Romantic Style in Music
The Romantic Ballet
Romantic Opera
Looking Back

30 Industry, Empire, and the Realist Style
Looking Ahead
The Global Dominion of the West
Nineteenth-Century Social Theory
Realism in Literature
Realism in the Visual Arts
Late Nineteenth-Century Architecture
Realism in Music
Looking Back

31 The Move Toward Modernism
Looking Ahead
Late Nineteenth-Century Thought
Poetry in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Symbolists
Music in the Late Ninteenth Century: Debussy
Painting in the Late Ninteenth Century
Art Nouveau
Literature in the Late Nineteenth Century
The Arts of Africa and Oceania
Postimpressionism
Looking Back

32 The Modernist Assault
Looking Ahead
The New Physics
Early Twentieth-Century Poetry
Early Twentieth-Century Art
Early Twentieth-Century Architecture
Early Twentieth-Century Music
The Beginnings of Modern Dance
Looking Back

33 The Freudian Revolution
Looking Ahead
Freud
The New Psychology and Literature
The New Psychology and the Visual Arts
The New Psychology and Music
Looking Back

34 Total War, Totalitarianism, and the Arts
Looking Ahead
Total Wars
World War I Literature
World War I Art
The Russian Revolution
The Great Depression and the American Scene
Totalitarianism and World War II
The Visual Arts in the War Era
Music in the War Era
The Communist Revolution in China
Looking Back

35 The Quest for Meaning
Looking Ahead
The Cold War
Existentialism
Literature at Mid-Century
The Visual Arts at Mid-Century
Sculpture at Mid-Century
Film at Mid-Century
Architecture at Mid-Century
Music and Dance at Mid-Century
Looking Back

36 Identity and Liberation
Looking Ahead
Anticolonialism and Liberation
The Quest for Racial Equality
The Quest for Gender Equality
Looking Back

37 The Information Age
Looking Ahead
The Information Explosion
New Directions in Science and Philosophy
Literature in the Information Age
The Visual Arts in the Information Age
Architecture in the Information Age
Music in the Information Age
Dance in the Information Age
Looking Back

38 Globalism: The Contemporary World
Looking Ahead
The Global Perspective
The Global Ecosystem
Globalism and Ethnic Identity
The Challenge of Globalism
The Arts in the Global Village
Looking Back