By piecing the lives of selected individuals into a grand mosaic, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel J. Boorstin explores the development of artistic innovation over 3,000 years. A hugely ambitious chronicle of the arts that Boorstin delivers with the scope that made his Discoverers a national bestseller.

Daniel J. Boorstin was the author of The Americans, a trilogy (The Colonial Experience; The National Experience, and The Democratic Experience) that won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1989, he received the National Book Award for lifetime contribution to literature. He was the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and for twelve years served as the Librarian of Congress. He died in 2004.

A Personal Note to the Reader
The Riddle of Creation: A Prologue
Worlds Without Beginning
The Dazzled vision of the Hindus	p. 4
The Indifference of Confucius	p. 9
The Silence of the Buddha	p. 59
The Homeric Scriptures of the Greeks	p. 26
A Creator-God
The Intimate God of Moses	p. 38
The Birth of Theology	p. 46
The Innovative God of Saint Augustine	p. 55
The Uncreated Koran	p. 63
Book One: Creator Man
The Power of Stone
The Mystery of Megaliths	p. 74
Castles of Eternity	p. 79
Temples of Commnunity	p. 90
Orders for Survival	p. 101
Artificial Stone: A Roman Revolution	p. 107
Dome of the World	p. 118
The Great Church	p. 127
A Road Not Taken: The Japanese Triumph of Wood	p. 136
The Magic of Images
The Awe of Images	p. 148
Human Hieroglyphs	p. 153
The Athletic Ideal	p. 164
For Family, Empire - and History	p. 175
The Healing Image	p. 183
"Satan's Handiwork"	p. 193
The Immortal Word
Dionysus the Twice-Born	p. 202
The Birth of the Spectator: From Ritual to Drama	p. 206
The Mirror of Comedy	p. 214
The Arts of Prose and Persuasion	p. 220
Book Two: Re-Creating the World
Otherworldly Elements
The Consoling Past	p. 234
The Music of the Word	p. 238
An Architecture of Light	p. 246
Adventures in Death	p. 255
The Human Comedy: A Composite Work
Escaping the Plague	p. 266
Joys of Pilgrimage	p. 276
"In the Land of Booze and Bibbers"	p. 288
Adventures in Madness	p. 298
The Spectator Reborn	p. 308
The Freedom to Choose	p. 320
Sagas of Ancient Empire	p. 333
New-World Epics	p. 342
A Mosaic of Novels	p. 353
In Love with the Public	p. 364
From Craftsman to Artist
Archetypes Brought to Life	p. 380
Roman Afterlives	p. 384
The Mysteries of Light: From a Walk to a Window	p. 391
Sovereign of the Visible World	p. 398
"Divine Michelangelo"	p. 407
The Painted Word: The Inward Path of Tao	p. 419
Composing for the Community
A Protestant Music	p. 428
The Music of Instruments: From Court to Concert	p. 439
New Worlds for the Orchestra	p. 452
The Music of Risorgimento	p. 465
A Germanic Union of the Arts	p. 476
The Ephemeral Art of the Dance	p. 486
The Music of Innovation	p. 500
Conjuring With Time and Space
The Painted Moment	p. 512
The Power of Light: "The Pencil of Nature"	p. 524
The Rise of the Skyscraper	p. 536
Book Three: Creating the Self
The Vanguard Word
Inventing the Essay	p. 556
The Art of Being Truthful: Confessions	p. 567
The Arts of Seeming Truthful: Autobiography	p. 577
Intimate Biography	p. 585
The Heroic Self	p. 598
Songs of the Self	p. 613
In a Dry Season	p. 628
The Wilderness Within
An American at Sea	p. 642
Sagas of the Russian Soul	p. 658
Journey to the Interior	p. 672
The Garden of Involuntary Memory	p. 684
The Filigreed Self	p. 697
"I Too Am Here!"	p. 715
Vistas from a Restless Self	p. 727
Epilogue: Mysteries of a Public Art	p. 739
Some Reference Notes	p. 751
Acknowledgments	p. 779
Index	p. 783
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

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