Civilisation: A Personal View

New York: Harper & Row, 1969. Book Club (BCE/BOMC). Large Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 9x6x1. Book club edition. 1 inch closed tear on rear jacket corner, spine slightly cocked, top edge lightly foxed. 1969 Large Hardcover. xviii, 359 pp. Numerous photographs & illustrations. "The impulses, ideas, discoveries and beliefs which have formed and nurtured Western civilisation since the collapse of the Classical World are most powerfully revealed, and most readily accessible, in its world of art, its buildings, books, and great individuals. That is why in this remarkable volume, in which hundreds of carefully selected illustrations underscore the meaning of the text, Kenneth Clark has chosen to explore our history and culture though the diverse creative worlds of Western Man. His astounding lucidity in dealing with so wide a range of ideas and evens gives the book its special value and importance. As Kenneth Clark takes us from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present day, He does not attempt to give a complete record but concentrates on crucial civilisation episodes from Iona in the Ninth century to France in the twelfth, from Florence to Urbino, from Germany to Rome, England, Holland, and America. Against these historical backgrounds he shows us not only the men who gave new energy to civilisation and expanded our understanding of the world an ourselves, but also the worlds of genius, in architecture, sculpture, and painting, in philosophy, poetry, music, and in science and in engineering, which they produced.