the book delivers a fascinating journey through the labyrinth of human expression, tracing the evolution of culture from its earliest roots to its modern civilization. It dives into roots, events, evolution, and human nature to explain the culture and its development, skilfully weaving together academia and pop-culture, it is an interesting read for people who are not to deep into the non-fiction reading world, it is an easy and enjoyable read.

I don't like liars. If you're going to advertise K-pop in the title, have more than two pages on the subject. Also, don't be so condescending about it. Sorry not sorry that it's popular. The rest is passable. It's nothing you won't know if you paid attention in world history.

If you love learning about world history and culture, you’ll love this book. It dragged in places, but overall it’s an interesting look at several cultural crossovers.

This book explores various pop culture phenomena throughout history. It was a fun book. My favorite section was the K-pop culture. It was a bit repetitive at times. Nevertheless, I recommend this for those interested in popular culture!

'Culture: The Story of Us' is not quite the book I expected it to be. I'm not sure how to articulate exactly what I expected, but in short I'd say I was looking for something that would examine cultural moods throughout human history and the impact of those views on art. Instead, this book offers an examination of how cultural elements have served as tools for the transmission of knowledge and information. This expectation was my own fault as I clearly misread the synopsis. Either way, the writing was a bit dry for my liking and I found it a bit hard to push through this book.

I thought this was going to be a fun, history of the zeitgeist sort of read for history buffs who love contextual examinations of culture, but unfortunately it reads more like a freshman survey course in world civilizations.

Which would be fine, except that’s not what the book is purporting to aim for. If you have very little knowledge of world history or are looking for a broad-stroke brush-up on the topic, this should suffice. But if you’re looking for what this book claimed to offer, you’re going to be disappointed.

While accurate and compellingly worded, it just isn’t enough for the audience it purports to target. I really
don’t need someone to explain the purpose of the Rosetta Stone to me, y’know? And I doubt most people who would pick up a book like this do either. I learned more about the San Domingue revolts from HG Parry’s historical fantasy novels than I did from this. And these topics, as well as the rest that were covered here, are presented merely in the traditional method used in a world history survey, rather than as nuanced cultural signifiers, no matter how many times the author tries to tell us otherwise in the text.

There is so much good stuff out there on cultural history. Unless you’re very short on background in world history, skip this and go for one of the many other books out there that actually achieves what this book failed in its attempt to do.

A fascinating and comprehensive look at various impactful cultures that have existed over time and the impact that these cultures have on the way we live today. I loved how thorough this book was; it covered way more than I thought it would. At the same time, it didn't feel too busy. I think it would have been easy when writing this book to cover so much stuff that you don't have the space to really explore each individual aspect. That didn't feel like the case here though. The author took the time to really explore each aspect that was being addressed. I would highly recommend to just about anyone: history buffs, sociology fans, pop culture enthusiasts, etc.

Full Review will be published on Febuarary 4th @9:00am EST on Instagram, Storygraph, and Goodreads at @abookwormsgarden

A great overview of the ever-evolving concept of culture. Throughout history, different groups of people from around the world have created art, religion, literature, and other aspects that represent their society at that place and time. While these aspects usually coalesce into what we consider to be their culture, it's not always clear cut and often has ties to outside cultural elements, either by conquest, adaption, or downright revisionist history. Culture has always been both tangible and intangible and can either be transported to other locations or incorporated into another group's own belief system. Puchner provides many examples in which culture has been transformed by the blending of groups, the conquering of empires, the re-writing of the past, or the genuine desire to create a new form based off an old one. Puchner makes the argument that for culture to survive, it needs descendants who understand it and can keep it alive in the memories of future generations as well as for the humanities to be considered just as important as the hard sciences. Overall, a well-written look into the importance of culture and how it is up to everyone to pass on what they consider important to future generations.

Culture, Puchner says, is a broken chain that humans repair every generation. While destruction and cultural development go hand in hand, this does not preclude the fact that humans are culture-producing animals who have, for millennia, relied on the availability of new forms of expression and meaning-making to develop worldviews. We confront what came before us so that we can understand it and adapt it for our own purposes.

He explores the popular notion that culture belongs to the people born into it. In this view, national traditions, customs, and arts are seen as a form of property that is off-limits to outsiders. Cultural appropriation is viewed as violative. He will argue that this view impoverishes and does not recognize how culture actually works. His view is supported by an extensive world tour itinerary beginning in prehistory. Culture does not sprout from the ground fresh and unique, unadulterated by those who came before or encounters with other cultures where forms and ideas are borrowed and articulated in a new way. Puchner’s argument, backed by a sweeping review of historical cultural sharing, is both enlightening and reassuring. Reflecting on culture as a beautiful layering of others gives one a sense thrilling connectedness in a world that is fractured, one where mine might be bettered thought of as ours.

My thanks to both Netgalley and the publisher W. W. Norton & Company for an advanced copy of this book on culture, history, and understanding what is left behind.

The art and interests of a people sometimes tell more about them then the ruins they might leave behind, thought even then these ruins are probably influenced in someway by cultural influences. The real problem is seems is understanding what a picture, or a couple of slashes in rock might mean, as the art remains but the interpretation could be endless. What were the influences and what was later influenced. This can tell us alot about the past, and about ourselves. Critic, commentator and Harvard Professor Martin Puchner in his book Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art to K-Pop looks at humankinds earliest works at understanding and leaving a legacy to the top of the charts of today to see where we have come, where we are going and what be lost.

The book begins with a look at the Chauvet cave paintings, a prehistoric site where ancient people created art featuring the animals around them, and left tracings of hands and themselves for future generations to both learn from and remember. Puchner explains both the significance and importance of what was shown and how it influenced others who came behind, plus what a loss it was when the cave was covered in a landslide, preserving the site for us, but cheating others of knowledge. Readers than follow along as Puchner travels the mostly western world, showing the influence of art, and how this art and learning was shared, or in some case used to subjugate others, or even worse was wiped out by others with their own culture.

The book is both an interesting look at history, and look at the importance of art and the study of the humanities. Puchner has a talent in his writing to educate without lecturing and more importantly interesting. There is a little bit of reading curve, it does take a while to get into the groove and to figure out where Puchner is taking the reader, but soon the narrative becomes clear, and again is so intriguing that readers soon are flipping along. The book is well sourced and researched, with a lot of different facts and ideas on each page. The examples and Puchner's ability to explain and again to keep everything entertaining, as well as educational makes for a very informative read.

Recommended for both historians and readers who enjoy books about pop culture and the understanding of culture and entertainment on history. A different view of the growth and failure of many civilizations, and the many works that have been lost.

Culture was a great book, demonstrating how much the arts enhance our lives, throughout location and history. I appreciated the author's ability to make the information relatable and not boring.

"It’s not always a pretty story, and shouldn’t be presented as such, but it’s the only one we’ve got: the history of humans as a culture-producing species. It’s the story of us."

A gripping story of losses and rediscoveries; power plays and heroic journeys; innovations, imitations, and appropriations, Culture is presented by literary critic and Harvard professor of Drama, English, and Comparative Literature Martin Puchner. We as readers are taken on a tour through space, time and the human experience through both science, the natural world, and the human way of finding meaning in this life we are given.

Throughout this study of culture, Puchner shows us time and time again, just how important studies in the Humanities (like art and literature) are to molding the human experience and life as the more hard or physical sciences like Biology and Chemistry are. Without the Humanities, we would be nothing but robots. Art is what gives us the chance to express ourselves, and allows us to find and show who we are.

I found this collection highly intriguing and a probing dive into the human experience across time and various geological places and cultures.

Culture is set to be published on February 7, 2023. Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company, NetGalley and the author for the advanced reader's copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art to K-Pop" - written by Harvard Professor Martin Puchner - delivers on its promise of telling a sweeping story of humanity, from cave walls to K-Pop concerts. The author manages to write for both the seasoned historian and the neophyte pop culture enthusiast. He examines 'culture' as something both elusive and conceptual, reminding us that culture itself is fluid, and that its meaning changes as often as culture itself changes hands. The book begs readers to ask certain questions of themselves: What exactly is culture? How do we define culture? Is there really a difference between high culture and pop culture" What is culture worth to subsequent generations? Culture is explored as something that is abstract and yet tangible, and nothing is so high or low as to escape assessment.

Culture never exists in a vacuum, and this book does a great job of illustrating this point. Each chapter covers a different cultural experience, such as cave painting, Greek theater, or monastic libraries in the Middle Ages, and shows how they were impacted by cultures outside of the ones they originated in. Culture is traded, combined, taken, and destroyed all throughout human history, due to humanity continually interacting with each other. The topics chosen were interesting and presented a good variety of stories from around the world, though there was a focus on Western topics. I liked how the author presented the connections that went into creating these cultural phenomenon, some I knew about, but a lot were new for me. I enjoyed this book, and recommend it for anyone looking for a short, easy to read history book with an engaging story to tell.

In Culture: The Story of Us, literary critic and Harvard professor of Drama, English, and Comparative Literature Martin Puchner takes us on a tour through time and space to discover the strategies that humans have developed to understand our world: both through STEM-type discovery and mastery of the natural world (our know-how; only briefly referenced here) and our efforts at meaning-making (our know-why; the focus of this book). Throughout this overview of thousands of years of humanity’s quest for knowledge and meaning, Puchner seems to be stressing two main points: that the Humanities as an area of study are equally as important to improving the human experience as are the “hard” sciences; and that humans have always borrowed from and built on the culture of other communities — our current focus on gatekeeping against “cultural appropriation” is in direct opposition to the ways in which culture has always been diffused and preserved. That last point might be controversial — and as Puchner returns to it many times, it would seem that he understands he has a hard case to make — but through many, many examples (from the Chauvet cave paintings, to Pompeiian mosaics, to Aztec pictograms) he proves that knowledge can be literally carved in stone for future generations, but if a particular culture doesn’t survive into that future (and most will not), there will be no one around who can decipher what remains; culture needs to be adopted and adapted and carried forward in order to meaningfully survive. From the fascinating details to the overall message, I appreciated everything that I learned from this read.