Can anyone really own a culture? This magnificent account argues that the story of global civilisations is one of mixing, sharing, and borrowing

It shows how art forms have crisscrossed continents over centuries to produce masterpieces. From Nefertiti's lost city and the Islamic Golden Age to twentieth century Nigerian theatre and Modernist poetry, Martin Puchner explores how contact between different peoples has driven artistic innovation in every era - whilst cultural policing and purism have more often undermined the very societies they tried to protect.

Travelling through Classical Greece, Ashoka's India, Tang dynasty China, and many other epochs, this triumphal new history reveals the crossing points which have not only inspired the humanities, but which have made us human.

About the Author

Martin Puchner, the Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, is an award-winning author, educator, public speaker, and institution builder in the arts and humanities. His writings, which include a dozen books and anthologies and over seventy articles and essays, range from philosophy and theatre to world literature and have been translated into many languages.

Through his best-selling Norton Anthology of World Literature and his HarvardX MOOC Masterpieces of World Literature, he has brought four thousand years of literature to audiences across the globe. He is a permanent member of the European Academy.

Preface: How culture works -- Introduction: Inside the Chauvet Cave, 35,000 BCE -- Queen Nefertiti and her faceless god -- Plato burns his tragedy and invents a history -- King Ashoka sends a message to the future -- A south Asian goddess in Pompeii -- A Buddhist pilgrim in search of ancient traces -- The Pillow Book and some perils of cultural diplomacy -- When Baghdad became a storehouse of wisdom -- The Queen of Ethiopia welcomes the raiders of the ark -- One Christian mystic and the three revivals of Europe -- The Aztec capital faces its European enemies and admirers -- A Portuguese sailor writes a global epic -- Enlightenment in Saint-Domingue and in a Parisian salon -- George Eliot promotes the science of the past -- A Japanese wave takes the world by storm -- The drama of Nigerian independence -- Epilogue: Will there be a library in 2114 CE?