Making culture central in your life and appreciating all cultures in the world are excellent ways to improve your mental and physical health and well-being. Paul Schafer's new book guides readers to many paths for developing a culture-focused life. He shows that cultures embrace all aspects of life and are manifested in families, cities, regions, countries, nature, and the lives of other species. ---Brian Holihan, author of Thinking in a New Light: How To Boost Your Creativity and Live More Fully by Exploring World Cultures, United States
Another masterpiece! I read the whole book in only two sittings and enjoyed every page of it. Paul Schafer's book provides light and hope as more and more people seek balance, harmony, equality, and synchronicity in their lives, the world, and nature. ---Diane Dodd, Co-founder and President of International Institute for Gastronomy, Culture, Arts, and Tourism, Spain
[Schafer] makes a compelling case that the definition of culture as "the complex whole or total way of life" should have been recognized earlier. Instead, the age that we are living through has been shaped by economics and not by the arts and humanities. The sharp division of "hard subjects" and "soft subjects" haunts us still. Culture must take precedence if we are to address the existential problems of climate change, global pandemics, inequalities of wealth and education, as well as systemic racism.... Essential reading for those who seek to understand the "big picture." ---John Hobday, former director, Canada Council for the Arts, Canada
Paul Schafer sees this century as the time of a great cultural awakening. Our own project, Reconnecting With Your Culture (RWYC), to which he has been the mentor and inspirer, accepts culture as a global mission of awakening youth through a deeply-rooted cultural and eco-based education. This book succeeds in projecting the changing nature of culture and its systemic and complex nature as a whole or way of life and will help all of us open the doors to a cultural age. ---Professor Olimpia Niglio, President, RWYC International, University of Pavia, Italy
This book ... will serve as a beacon of light in the emergence of the age of culture as both a resource and a pathway. ---Professor Rana P.B. Singh, Banaras Hindu University, India

In The Great Cultural Awakening, Paul Schafer highlights the transformative power of culture in reshaping our world, emphasizing its pivotal role in addressing global challenges, and ensuring the future well-being of humanity and the environment. As he aptly states: "Culture's holistic ability to focus attention on the whole and not just on a specific part or parts of the whole should not be discounted, ignored, or taken for granted." ---Susan Magsamen, executive director, International Arts + Mind Lab and Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics, Johns Hopkins University and co-author of the best-selling book Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, United States

While some may believe that "politics is everything" and "it's the economy, stupid," this book makes us realize why culture matters far more than this and how politics and the economy are determined by culture. This lucid and insightful book on cultural awakening explains cultural development and policy from the ground up and addresses the crucial requirements for entering a cultural age and enabling it to flourish. ---Ashfaq Ishaq, Ph.D., Founder and Chair, International Child Art Foundation, United States