Perspectives on Humanity in the Fine Arts takes a historical approach to western art and helps readers envision times and places by studying their unique forms of artistic expression. Students first learn about the elemental principles of the four basic arts: visual art, music, theater, and dance, as expressions of the vibrancy of different cultural environments. They then learn to understand the arts in their geographical and historical contexts, as the text immerses the student in the fabric of western cultural history through artistic experience.

Within the historical domain of each era, a rich variety of visual and performing arts examples brings the period and its culture to life. The arts offer a way for the student to understand each culture's ideals, aspirations, and search for perfection. By studying a diverse grouping of arts within a specific geographical and historical niche, the student can experience each culture as a contemporary participant might.

Areas covered include prehistory, the ancient Near East and Egypt, classical Greece and Rome, the Byzantine Empire, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, baroque, neoclassical, romantic and twentieth-century art forms, and others. Students come to understand the position and impact of art as expressions of a culture's soul in the development of western history.

Rooted in this conception of the collective arts as expressions of unique cultures, Perspectives on Humanity in the Fine Arts is intended for survey courses that cover the fine arts for non-majors.