This book offers an integrated exploration of Western civilization's cultural heritage. Readers move chronologically through major periods and styles to gain insight into the achievements and ideas in painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, philosophy, religion, and music. The book provides a historical (political, economic, and social) framework to contextualize these achievements within a specific time and place, from prehistoric culture to 20th-Century America. Volume I covers prehistory to the late Medieval (Chs. 1-12 of the Combined Edition), and includes literary and philosophical excerpts. For anyone interested in the Arts and Culture.