How does culture make us human? ‘A writer of genius’ (William Dalrymple) takes us on a journey from Greece to Ashoka’s India, Tang dynasty China, the Islamic Golden Age and beyond.

Join Harvard Professor and bestselling author Martin Puchner for a triumphal new history that reveals the crossing points which have not only inspired the humanities, but which have made us human.

A story of global civilisations that celebrates mixing, sharing, and borrowing, Martin will show 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 will explore how contact between different peoples has driven artistic innovation in every era.

Fans of Yuval Noah Harari and Jared Diamond ought not to miss this stunning new account of the history of the world.

Praise for Martin Puchner’s Culture: A New World History:

‘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