What is worth remembering? What gets passed down from one generation to another? What does it mean to be human? Culture, Gary Taylor argues, is not what was done but what is remembered, and the social competition among different memories is as dynamically complicated as the struggle for biological survival. That struggle for culture - driven by emotions as basic as grief, pride, and resentment - is the foundation of personal and national identity.

Taylor illustrates his arguments by reintroducing us to imaginative achievements that continue to stimulate us long after their creation, from Stonehenge to Hollywood - including Oedipus, Casablanca, the paintings of Velazquez, Michelangelo's sculptures, Japanese literature, Native American narratives, science fiction, the music of Stravinsky, Shakespeare's plays, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

He also discusses the endurance of social phenomena as disparate as the global impact of the Old Testament and the evolving reputation of Richard Nixon.