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What to expect

'A writer of genius' - William Dalrymple

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.

Critics Review

'A breakneck, utterly captivating survey of threads of cultural transmission-how ideas, stories, and songs-survive, change, vanish, get borrowed, refined, coopted, and grafted through time ... I underlined sentences on every page.'
Anthony Doerr
'A remarkable book.'
Kwame Anthony Appiah
'Martin Puchner has exceptional and invaluable gifts: intellectual fearlessness, dazzling erudition, trenchancy tempered by breadth of mind, and a humanist's eye for minute evidence that illumines huge problems.'
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
'Fearless and exhilaratingly erudite, Martin Puchner's panoramic tour of human culture across the millennia is a riveting page-turner.'
Amy Chua
'A writer of genius'
William Dalrymple
'Elegantly written and full of erudite lore, this vibrant history illuminates the inveterate human yearning for expression.'
Publishers Weekly
'Compellingly written'
Financial Times
'A thoughtful, generous vision of human creativity across centuries of culture.'
Kirkus
'Fluent and engaging.'
Wall Street Journal
'A mighty, polymathic work . . . [by] a master storyteller
Boston Globe

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