The European Heritage - An Outline of Western Culture

This book is an inquiry into ways in which the great characterizing features of European culture have come into existence. Professor Lehmann approaches the subject by concentrating our attention on a sequence of critically significant epochs and places. Greece and Rome are naturally fundamental, and occupy a long first chapter. They are followed by medieval Paris, Renaissance Florence, the absolute monarchs of the Baroque age, the Dutch Republic, the Enlightenment, Victorian England, pre-1914 Vienna, the Weimar Republic and `Yesterday.' Culture is widely defined, and each chapter comprises close-up examinations of outstanding collective and individual achievements in political, civic and commercial life, in philosophy, theology, law and science, in literature, music and the visual arts...