Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities, Volume II
The liveliness, the greater focus on art, literature and other humanistic developments, shifts the focus away from the 'history with pictures' approach to a more truly integrated discussion of human endeavors. I like the tone, the examples, and the additional images especially.  I note that throughout the text there are references to other cultural developments (stories from Ovid serving as inspiration for Shakespeare plots, for example). I like these connections very much. The 'Compare & Contrast' section is potentially more valuable because of the images paired with it, which will give the students a stronger idea of the concept under discussion. I do like the Colosseum/sports arena pairing, which I find useful. The Colosseum is certainly one of Rome's major monuments and the choice of this to connect with modern examples is logical and useful. The separate section is an extension of this comparative theme as a whole, one with a bit more depth. I think it is a positive one; I like it."Despite having read many textbooks on the same topics, I found reading this book pleasurable due to the writing style.