This book is as engrossing as anything by Agatha Christie, as unsettling as a novel by Stephen King, and reported with a vigorous empathy that leaves Truman Capote in the dust.
AN ORIGIN STORY BOOK'Provides clarity, scholarship, wit and essential insight into why our world is the way it is' Adam Rutherford'I wish I could make Ian and Dorian's work mandatory' Sathnam SangheraWhat makes people believe in conspiracy theories?
It is often assumed that the female characters found in popular folk and fairy tales are little more than inconsequential stereotypes--mostly serving as hapless victims in need of rescue, boring one-dimensional princesses, or egotistical and conniving villains.
Learning Love from a Tiger explores the vibrancy and variety of humans' sacred encounters with the natural world, gathering a range of stories culled from Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Mayan, Himalayan, Buddhist, and Chinese shamanic traditions.
The Sanctuary of Eleusis, near Athens, was the center of a religious cult that endured for nearly two thousand years and whose initiates came from all parts of the civilized world.
In Haiti, History, and the Gods, Joan Dayan charts the cultural imagination of Haiti not only by reconstructing the island's history but by highlighting ambiguities and complexities that have been ignored.
The Saga of the Volsungs is an Icelandic epic of special interest to admirers of Richard Wagner, who drew heavily upon this Norse source in writing his Ring Cycle and a primary source for writers of fantasy such as J.
A landmark work that demystifies the rich tradition of Indian art, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization analyzes key motifs found in legend, myth, and folklore taken directly from the Sanskrit.
In Quest of the Hero makes available for a new generation of readers two key works on hero myths: Otto Rank's Myth of the Birth of the Hero and the central section of Lord Raglan's The Hero.
Mary Becks collection of legends from Tlingit and Haida folklore provides an excellent look at not only the mythology but the value and culture of these Southeast Alaska Natives.
"A woman was sitting on the witness stand, and the lawyer asked her, 'Did you, or did you not, on the night of June 23rd have sex with a hippie on the back of a motorcycle in a peach orchard?
In the classic rags-to-riches fairy tale a penniless heroine (or hero), with some magic help, marries a royal prince (or princess) and rises to wealth.
In 2011 a 24-year-old man pled guilty to falsifying his application to Harvard University, bilking the world's most prestigious university out of more than $45,000 in prizes and scholarships.
Among the Northwest Coast Indians (Tlingit, Haida, and others), potlatches traditionally are lavish community gatherings marking important events, such as funerals or marriages.
A gripping and groundbreaking history of how ancient cultures developed and used biological, chemical, and other unconventional weapons of warFlamethrowers, poison gases, incendiary bombs, the large-scale spreading of disease: are these terrifying agents of warfare modern inventions?
Young Abraham Lincoln and his family joined the migration over the Ohio River, but it was Kentuckythe state of his birththat shaped his personality and continued to affect his life.
Beasts of the Deep: Sea Creatures and Popular Culture offers its readers an in-depth and interdisciplinary engagement with the sea and its monstrous inhabitants; through critical readings of folklore, weird fiction, film, music, radio and digital games.
It's tempting to think that we live in an unprecedentedly fertile age for conspiracy theories, with seemingly each churn of the news cycle bringing fresh manifestations of large-scale paranoia.
A compelling comparison of the gospels and Greco-Roman mythology which shows that the gospels were not perceived as myths, but as historical records Did the early Christians believe their myths?
Inspired new translations of the work of one of the world's greatest fabulists Told in an elegant style, Jean de la Fontaine's (1621-95) charming animal fables depict sly foxes and scheming cats, vain birds and greedy wolves, all of which subtly express his penetrating insights into French society and the beasts found in all of us.
Gifted travel writer, poet, professor of English, and insightful observer of human nature, Colleen McElroy journeyed to Madagascar to undertake a Fulbright research project exploring Malagasy oral traditions and myths.
In Folklore, Bill Ivey, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, argues that the world today is being reshaped by the end of the Enlightenment.
Gentlemen and Amazons traces the nineteenth-century genesis and development of an important contemporary myth about human origins: that of an original prehistoric matriarchy.
One of the oldest extant works of Western literature, the Iliad is a timeless epic poem of great warriors trapped between their own heroic pride and the arbitrary, often vicious decisions of fate and the gods.
Mircea Eliade--one of the most renowned expositors of the psychology of religion, mythology, and magic--shows that myth and symbol constitute a mode of thought that not only came before that of discursive and logical reasoning, but is still an essential function of human consciousness.
A treasury of astonishing mythic marvels-and the surprising truths behind themAdrienne Mayor is renowned for exploring the borders of history, science, archaeology, anthropology, and popular knowledge to find historical realities and scientific insights-glimmering, long-buried nuggets of truth-embedded in myth, legends, and folklore.
Jim Gramon, a native Texas storyteller, introduces you to some of his friends: John Henry Faulk, Cactus Pryor, Allen Damron,Mason Brewer, Mody Boatright, and Ben King Green.
The song "e;John Henry,"e; perhaps America's greatest folk ballad, is about an African-American steel driver who raced and beat a steam drill, dying "e;with his hammer in his hand"e; from the effort.
The story of Jason and the Argonauts is one of the most famous in Greek myth, and its development from the oldest layers of Greek mythology down to the modern age encapsulates the dramatic changes in faith, power and culture that Western civilization has seen over the past three millennia.
