Daniel Snowman
Are What We Call ‘The Arts’ Part of History, or Merely Illustrative of It?
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Summary
Who was Leonardo da Vinci, and why did he paint the Mona Lisa? Or Michelangelo the Sistine Chapel? Or why did Aeschylus write The Oresteia, Chaucer The Canterbury Tales, or Goethe Faust? Daniel argues that, far from being separate from “mainstream” history, the so-called arts are integrated with all other aspects of the past. Ways in which humans have tried to superimpose their creative imagination upon all that’s around them (and perhaps earn some money for doing so!).
Daniel Snowman
Daniel Snowman is a social and cultural historian. Born in London to a Jewish family in 1938 and educated at Cambridge and Cornell, Daniel became a lecturer at the University of Sussex and went on to work for many years at the BBC as senior producer of radio features and documentaries. A senior research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research (University of London), his many books include a social history of opera and a study of the cultural impact of the “Hitler Emigrés” and, most recently, his memoir Just Passing Through: Interactions with the World 1938-2021.