Ronald Taylor brings to life the cultural activities of each age, putting these in the context of the politics and social life of the era. In relation to the medieval period, for example, he describes the "red-brick" Gothic style, Gothic art in general, and early printed books. For later periods, as the arts develop, he highlights the architecture, contemporary painting and sculpture, music, literature, furniture, and interior decoration. Great names inseparable from the life of the city―Lessing, Hegel, Schinkel, Mendelssohn, Menzel, and Fontane―appear prominently in the narrative. But Taylor also discusses lesser figures who, absorbed by their time and place, often tell us more about their era than do their greater contemporaries.