100 Books Like Dawn of Art

Over the years, I’ve read hundreds, maybe thousands of books. Many of them have moved, stretched, and entertained me, but there are only a few I wandered into and realized early on that I would not get out of this one unchanged.

The author's inventiveness is astonishing, managing to create not one new world we inhabit but three, all deftly interconnected by the unlikely thread of a simple fable passed from generation to generation. Perhaps most striking to me is the sheer power of the book, its capacity to take us places and share lives we would otherwise never dreamed of.

While the mysterious document—itself a fascinating story within a story—wends its way through a narrative that spans a thousand years, its message is less important than the lives it touches.

And what lives. Each character is drawn so vividly and infused with such essential, defining human traits that we… show more.

Ever since her rediscovery in 1912, the statue of Nefertiti has become the best-known face from antiquity—after having been buried for over three thousand years.

But more remarkable than the statue is what it stands for.

The historical queen Nefertiti, along with her husband Akhenaten, built a new city, worshipped a new god, and introduced a new style of art. This experiment, which anticipated monotheism, was so radical that it was subsequently erased from history.

Archeologists had to piece together what Nefertiti did through excavations such as the one that unearthed the world’s most beautiful statue.  

This book, completed in the 14th century, takes its point of departure from an episode in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament): the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon.

In the Bible, the queen visits the famous king, cross examines him, and leaves again.

According to the Kebra Nagast, she also becomes pregnant with his son. When the son comes of age, the queen sends him to his father in Jerusalem, who recognizes him and wants him to stay. But the son yearns to return home to Askum, in Ethiopia.

Before he and his companions leave, they steal the Ten Commandments and bring them back to Ethiopia, where they become the foundation for Ethiopian Christianity.

This remarkable story shows the interconnection of cultures, the ties between the Hebrew Bible and Ethiopian Christianity. In the 20th century, it was used by Jamaicans seeking to connect to ancient… show more.

Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Prize laureate from Nigeria, was steeped in both Yoruba traditions and Greek tragedy as well as Shakespeare.

This combination of influences shaped his adaptation of The Bacchae, by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides.

He brings this play into the modern world of slavery, using White and Black actors. At the same time, he captures the original’s blend of ritual and performance.

This explosive mixture is the most compelling study I know in what theater can do: mobilize bodies in front of an audience. It also shows how theater can bridge vast historical and cultural differences.

Know your audience? I’m kidding—never condescend; there’s nothing to be gained. Leave the smug cleverness to the Gladwells and Pinkers; we’re seeking higher ground here. What is culture? Don’t act like you don’t want to talk about it – or the stakes. This is THE TALK we actually need to have.

We have an affinity for our own habits, and Bourdieu walks us through them using the socially innocent language of likes and dislikes. His is a very straightforward discussion of experiences and social conditions that you didn’t know you needed. How do tastes vary, and why? Hmmmm.

At some basic level, the drinking culture in eighteenth-century taverns has survived in Parisian wine bars and cafés today. Yet, as a social anthropologist, Demossier shows us that wine-drinking culture has changed into something different today. Since 1980 the number of French people who drank wine every day has plummeted from over 50 percent to barely 20 percent. Yet at the same time, wine has taken on a larger cultural role in French identity as a nation even for those who drink wine less regularly. All the TV programs, books, wine blogs, wine tourism, and consumers flocking to wineries for a degustation at the source demonstrate that drinking wine is now as much a part of what it means to be French as speaking French.

This is one of the best books I know for covering a huge amount of material in a compact, reader-friendly, yet very thorough form. The author provides insightful perspective on French history, psychology, culture, cuisine, language, and habits, and offers particularly helpful advice about how to recover from the inevitable moments of cultural awkwardness. Although some of the practical information is outdated, the general insights into and analysis of French people and their culture will never go out of date. I think it’s well worth reading for anyone who has an interest in France and the French that goes beyond the surface; anyone who has a genuine interest in understanding this fascinating people and culture. 

This is a brilliant essay in literary criticism. It traces English ambivalence towards French language and culture in the centuries that followed the Norman Conquest. It does so by delving into major literary texts—by Chaucer and Shakespeare among others—that explore that ambivalence for what it is: the symptom of a fetish. I like the way Williams writes and I find her inspiring in her desire to remain faithful to the complexity of the texts she studies and their attitudes.

Although this book is in French, it is the most detailed defense to date of the view that at least some Upper Paleolithic societies were non-egalitarian, i.e. that they had significant wealth and power differences between individuals or families. The title emphasizes art, but this is really just a point of departure for understanding the entire economic, social, and political organization of certain Upper Paleolithic groups and why the great works of art were produced. It uses the initial arguments that I developed in an earlier book (in French) to structure the supporting data. So, naturally, I am favorably disposed towards it. But it is a good book as well! If you can read French, this is highly recommended.

I am a big fan of this imaginative, time-traveling picture book, which transports the young reader back to prehistoric times. The Stone Age is not always the most accessible subject for little ones, but there is nothing dry about the bones seen here.

The story is told in a fun, relatable text, with expressive language perfect for reading aloud—‘Water dripping! The wind moaning!’ etc. Supporting explanations are added in italic text, which I found fascinating. Direct invitations immediately grab attention, such as ‘Make tricky traps and track wild animals. An ambush…Shhh!’

I love how the language and illustrations complement each other perfectly in this little gem of a book, which is both immersive and hugely informative. I would definitely recommend it!