Arts and Ideas

For anyone who wants to delve into the world of art history and the fine arts, this book is a beautiful introduction. Very extensive, and even rivalling other fine arts books specializing in specific areas of the arts. I've had the good pleasure of being taught by William Fleming in college, and it was truly a life enrichening experience. This book will offer the same. I particularly enjoyed the use of psychological/sociological aspects of the arts through history to show common themes of the human psyche, however common, rare and mundane. All the art reproduced is rich with extemely good DPI, color quality, being printed on high quality paper. This book is well worth its expensive price.

I used this book as a Music Major and now am using it for a Humanities course that I am teaching. It's great to see that the book is still as popular as it was in the eighties!

Fleming does an excellent job encompassing thousands of years of art in this consummate book. He does, however, make a less than valorous attempt at including the contributions of women in the realm. This is the 1990s, not the 1890s -- it's time for a revision, Bill!

Arts & Ideas was recommended reading when I studied History of Art. I never owned the book myself (having borrowed it from a friend at the time), but in the past ten years, I have constantly wished that I did. Fleming gives one a taste of the Zeitgeist of various eras, showing how the various arts (visual, music, literary) expressed the philosophy of each age. I can REALLY recommend the chapter on Romanticism. It is wonderfully amusing.

ARTS & IDEAS is the text book for my college Humanities course. It is difficult to cover a few hundred thousand years of existence in one book, but Fleming does so quite effectively. Concentrating on themes and main ideas, this book is great for anyone who wants to trace the development of the arts in the world culture. Fleming gets a definite A