A Cultural History of Color presents a history of 5000 years of color
in western culture. The first systematic and comprehensive history, the
work examines how color has been perceived, developed, produced and
traded, and how it has been used in all aspects of performance - from
the political to the religious to the artistic - and how it shapes all
we see, from food and nature to interiors and architecture, to objects
and art, to fashion and adornment, to the color of the naked human body,
and to the way our minds work and our languages are created.
Chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the
choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or
following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each
of the six. The themes (and chapter titles) are: Color Philosophy and
Science; Color Technology and Trade; Power and Identity; Religion and
Ritual; Body and Clothing; Language and Psychology; Literature and the
Performing Arts; Art; Architecture and Interiors; Artefacts.
The six volumes cover: 1 - Antiquity (3,000 BCE to 500 CE); 2 - Medieval
Age (500 to 1400); 3 - Renaissance (1400 to 1650); 4 - Age of
Enlightenment (1650 to 1800); 5 - Age of Industry (1800 to 1920); 6 -
Modern Age (1920 to the present).
The page extent for the pack is approximately 1760pp. Each volume opens
with Notes on Contributors and an Introduction and concludes with Notes,
Bibliography, and an Index.
The Cultural Histories Series*
A Cultural History of Color* is part of The Cultural Histories Series.
Titles are available both as printed hardcover sets for libraries
needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible
reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully-searchable digital
library available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual
access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com).
