An exploration of the creative spirit as manifest in the arts and humanities. This textbook examines historical shifts and artistic output in eastern and western culture beginning with the Protestant Reformation and ending in the 21st century.

The contents of this online book were created by Prof. Rick Bonus and his students as a final project for a course on “Critical Filipinx American Histories” in the Fall quarter of 2019 at the University of Washington, Seattle campus. In collaboration with the UW Libraries, the UW Burke Museum, and the UW Department of American Ethnic Studies, this book explores and reflects on the relationships between Filipinx American histories and selected artifacts at the Burke Museum. It is a class project that was made possible by the Allen Open Textbook Grant.

Are you confident you can reason clearly? Are you able to convince others of your point of view? Are you able to give plausible reasons for believing what you believe? Do you sometimes read arguments in the newspapers, hear them on the television, or in the pub and wish you knew how to confidently evaluate them? In this six-part course, you will learn all about arguments, how to identify them, how to evaluate them, and how not to mistake bad arguments for good. Such skills are invaluable if you are concerned about the truth of your beliefs, and the cogency of your arguments.

Using a combination of the newest findings in hemispheric science, neuropsychology, and brain development, along with the long-established rhetorical algorithms for analyzing the structure of arguments, this course explores the boundaries of critical and creative thinking in pursuit of developing a clearer and more robust model for the construction and deconstruction of various forms of argument. A variety of "texts" are used to help students develop rhetorical analysis skills, critical thinking tools and a diverse, integrative apparatus for establishing the veracity of truth claims in both academic and cultural contexts.

This collection uses primary sources to explore cross-cultural conflicts during the Colonial period of US History. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

The video resource "The Crusades - Pilgrimage or Holy War?: Crash Course World History #15" is included in the "World History" course from the resources series of "Crash Course". Crash Course is a educational video series from John and Hank Green.

At the end of a six-year armed conflict called the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement ousted Cuban President Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959, and ushered in a new government. Within months, as Castro began to implement policies and align with the communist Soviet Union, hundreds of thousands fled Cuba for the United States. Most were educated members of the upper and middle classes. Many of these immigrants, termed “exiles” and “refugees,” believed their stay in the United States was temporary because Castro’s government would be short-lived. As Castro’s regime persisted, they realized their flight could be permanent. Pushed out by the consequences of the Revolution, the influx of refugees swelled the Cuban population of the United States from 79,000 in 1960 to 439,000 by 1970. Cubans settled across the country, with the most significant community in Miami, Florida, followed by Union City, New Jersey.

The United States developed and expanded rapidly in the first half of the nineteenth century. There were new inventions, new markets, new religions, and new social movements. But not everything was changing for the better: during this time, plantation slavery became ever more entrenched, and white settlers pushed American Indians ever farther west.

1838 CE - 1973 CE, Heiau of King Kamehemeha the Great - Located just across from Hulihe'e Palace, the Ahu'ena Heiau served as the personal temple of King Kamehameha the Great. The temple essentially functioned as the first capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

600 BCE - 1400 CE, Oasis City along the Silk Road - The cities that developed at Merv span the last 2,500 years, and together they form one of the most complex and well-preserved urban centres on the Silk Route of Central Asia. Throughout its occupation, Merv was the capital of vast empires, a trading center, and a military and administrative center. Its importance began to decline as the east-west land-based trade routes were by-passed by the growing sea trade, and eventually the city was sacked by the armies of Genghis Khan.

89 BCE - 79 CE, The Ancient Roman Seaside Villas of Stabiae - Ancient Stabiae was established in the first centuries BCE and CE in a panoramic position on the edge of Varano hill. Chosen by the aristocracy and members of the Roman Imperial, Ancient Stabiae was home to luxury villas of the Roman elite. After the eruption of the Vesuvius in 79 CE, the city was buried under fourteen meters of dry lapilli (cinder) as were the nearby sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. However, unlike Pompeii and Herculaneum, Stabiae rose from the ashes and became famous for the healing properties of its thermal spring water.

2573 BCE - 29 BCE, The Ramesseum and Ancient Egyptian Capital - Ancient Thebes is home to the Ramesseum, one of the world's most important surviving examples of an ancient Egyptian temple. A project was designed to achieve an accurate sampling of the Ramesseum's ground plan for use in publication and conservation of the monument. Comprehensive laser scan coverage for the entire Ramesseum area was acquired along with detailed close-range 3D scans within the stone temple itself.

802 CE - 1431 CE, Hindu Temple Complex of the Khmer God Kings

400 BCE - 1319 CE, Church of the Redeemer - The Church of the Redeemer is one of the architectural masterpieces of the medieval city of Ani, located in the modern-day Turkish province of Kars and sitting atop a triangular plateau of land lined on its east by the Akhurian River and its west by the Aladja River. Ani's geographic location placed it directly along important east-west trade routes and in the center of regional politics for much of its history, with the Christian Byzantines to the west and the Islamic cultures to the east. This led to prosperity that materialized through some of the “greatest cultural expression[s] of Armenian architecture� (Cuneo 1984, 14). It became known beyond its own kingdom as the “city of the thousand and one churches,� due to its landscape dotted with churches, chapels, monasteries, and mausolea. Palaces and mansions, baths, inns, markets and shops, caravanserai, a citadel and ramparts, bridges, and aqueducts also contributed to Ani's distinguished reputation. At its peak under King Gagik I of the Armenian Bagratid dynasty (989-1020 CE), Ani rivaled Cairo, Baghdad, and Constantinople.

1722 CE - 1956 CE, Tracing the footsteps of slavery on a Danish sugar plantation