Book Two of this six-book volume looks at Medieval Europe and the world beyond. The text examines the shaping of the Middle Ages, exploring the flowering of Christianity and Buddhism, the Islamic world, philosophy and the arts.

Beginning with the birth of Christianity and of Buddhism, the second book of The Humanistic Tradition offers a wide-ranging look at the period from 0-1300 C.E. The book addresses the interaction between religion and culture in emerging Islamic societies while also drawing on art, music, literature, and architecture to draw a vivid portrait of life in Medieval Europe. It concludes with a discussion of the art and culture of medieval Asia - India, China, and Japan.

Interdisciplinary in approach and topical in focus, the sixth edition of The Humanistic Tradition continues to bring to life humankind's creative legacy. With more than 800 illustrations and some 150 literary sources in accessible translations, this widely acclaimed humanities survey takes a global perspective that is at once selective and engaging, and helps students better understand the relationship between world cultures. Available in multiple formats, The Humanistic Tradition examines the political, economic, and social contexts out of which history's most memorable achievements emerged.

Understanding that a global humanities course is taught in varying ways, Gloria Fiero redefines the discipline for greater flexibility with the 7th Edition of The Humanistic Tradition. Enhanced by McGraw-Hill’s LearnSmart® and SmartBook®, Fiero delivers a learning experience tailored to the needs of each institution, instructor, and student. With the ability to incorporate new extended readings, streaming music, and artwork, The Humanistic Tradition renews the understanding of the relationship between world cultures and humankind’s creative legacy. McGraw-Hill Connect Humanities is the only integrated learning system that empowers students by continuously adapting to deliver precisely what they need, when they need it, so that your class time is more engaging and effective. It provides tools that make assessment easier, learning more engaging, and studying more efficient. **Available exclusively on McGraw-Hill Create®, the Traditions Collection contains western and non-western readings as well as ancient and contemporary offerings, hand selected from a number of different disciplines, such as literature, philosophy, and science. Find the readings here: www.mcgrawhillcreate.com/traditions

From the twelfth century, a growing sense of cultural confidence in the Latin West (at the same time that the central lands of Islam suffered from numerous waves of conquest and devastation) was accompanied by the increasing importance of the genre of empirical ethnographies. From a a global perspective what is most distinctive of Europe is the genre's long-term impact rather than its mere empirical potential, or its ethnocentrism (all of which can also be found in China and in Islamic cultures). Hence what needs emphasizing is the multiplication of original writings over time, their increased circulation, and their authoritative status as a 'scientific' discourse. The empirical bent was more characteristic of travel accounts than of theological disputations - in fact, the less elaborate the theological discourse, the stronger the ethnographic impulse (although many travel writers were clerics). This anthology of classic articles in the history of medieval ethnographies illustrates this theme with reference to the contexts and genres of travel writing, the transformation of enduring myths (ranging from oriental marvels to the virtuous ascetics of India or Prester John), the practical expression of particular encounters from the Mongols to the Atlantic, and the various attempts to explain cultural differences, either through the concept of barbarism, or through geography and climate.