History, the Arts and Ideas

This book treats twelve subjects from The Matrix of Western Culture, expanding them chronologically and geographically: tales of King Arthur from Chrétien to Camelot; the Celts from pre-Roman times to the present day; geometry from Euclid to Einstein. Other essays include Marco Polo, the Silk Roads and the Great Divergence; the House of Wisdom: the Arabic Golden Age; High Gothic: the Age of Great French Cathedrals; J. S. Bach and the Mystery of the B Minor Mass; the World of Jane Austen; Beyond Darwin: Evolution, Ecosystems and Extinction; the Music of Ulysses; Understanding Economics; and Why Does the World Exist? Dr. Wenk has pursued careers as a musicologist, calculus teacher, and psychotherapist. He has published books on music history and bibliography, choral conducting, bookstores, western culture, and a series of mystery novellas with a musicologist as sleuth.