Product Description

Humanities through the Arts is intended for introductory-level, interdisciplinary courses offered across the curriculum in the Humanities, Philosophy, Art, English, Music, and Education departments. The book is arranged topically by art form from painting, sculpture, photography, and architecture to literature, music, theater, film, and dance. This beautifully illustrated text helps students learn how to actively engage a work of art. The new seventh edition retains the popular focus on the arts as an expression of cultural and personal values.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45905 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Customer Reviews

A Worthwhile Journey
This book provides a thorough survey of pretty much all the arts (not just visual arts) using plenty of well-chosen examples, many examined in some depth.

The organization of the book generally has a chapter for each art form, with each chapter mostly organized into various themes. This complements other books organized according to an historical approach.

By the time one has progressed through the journey of the entire book, the diligent reader should come away enriched with new perspectives on life and reality.

The one downside of the book, which isn't minor, is that I found much of the writing to be unnecessarily complicated and tedious. I'm not saying that the authors needed to "dumb it down," but I do think they could have conveyed their message much more clearly without compromising its substance. It's as though they just adopted a clunky, somewhat highbrow style at the outset, got used to it, and than ran with it all the way through the book, forgetting the needs and wants of their audience in the process. Lest one think I'm being too critical, consider the book The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern, which is both enlightening and a joy to read.

The above issue brings my rating down to 4 stars, but I still certainly recommend the book because of the considerable value it brings to the reader. Just be prepared to be genuinely attentive as you read it. Your investment of time and effort will be well rewarded.

Disappointed
I ordered using ISBN number as given by my university. What I received was not the same ISBN. It was the same title of the book, just the incorrect revision. I am doing an accelerated course, so the seller's offer of just return it for a full refund was not very helpful to me. I don't know if the problem was with the seller or Amazon. I am quite dissapointed that I got the wrong book. There are discrepancies.

Very Dry- But informative.
This book probably did what it was supposed to do. To bad I was not interested. I love the study of humanities, but not in a book. Everything is subject to ones views. And this book does give you information but lacks a certain depth. The pics aren't great either. Pick it up if you have to but beware.