Popular beliefs and controversial knowledge

This examination of myths from around the world focuses on the role nature plays within mythology.

Our understanding of Celtic astrology is based mainly on the speculations of modern authors--mostly drawn from classical Greek and Roman writings--and suffers from many misconceptions.

Of all the anomalous phenomenon reported, ghost sightings are by far the most common.

Mythology--circulated in sacred stories (myths) and their reenactments (rituals)--is the basis of any society's religion, and religion is an essential key to identity.

From the first woman Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Bertha von Suttner (1905), to the latest and youngest female Nobel laureate, Malala Yousafzai (2014), this book in its second edition provides a detailed look at the lives and accomplishments of each of these sixteen Prize winners.

This is the first book-length biography of Olivia Langdon Clemens, Mark Twain's wife.

Every culture in the world has a version of the story of Cinderella.

For the first time, the true story of "e;The Yellow Rose of Texas"e; is told in full, revealing a host of new insights and perspectives on one of America's most popular stories.

This book is an exploration of the spiritual traditions of ancient Europe, focusing on the numinous presence of the divine feminine in Russia, Central Europe, France, Britain, Ireland and the northern regions.

This is a comprehensive history of the world's midwinter gift-givers, showcasing the extreme diversity in their depictions as well as the many traits and functions these characters share.

When women picketed the White House demanding the vote on January 10, 1917, they broke new ground in political activism.

The Bulloch women of Roswell, Georgia, were not typical antebellum Southern belles.

This considerably expanded third edition of The Christmas Encyclopedia (2001) adds 281 new entries, bringing the total number of Christmas topics to more than 760.

Scottish novelist Jane Duncan's semiautobiographical My Friends series was dismissed by postwar critics as lightweight, at a time when a coterie of "e;angry young men"e; monopolized the attention of the British publishing establishment.

Focusing on Egypt during the period 1760 to 1870, this book fills in some of the historical blanks for a dance form often known today in the Middle East as raqs sharki or raqs baladi, and in Western countries as "e;belly dance.

This book examines the history of sexual harassment in America's public places, such as on the streets and on public transit vehicles, in the period 1880 to 1930.

An ever-expanding critical library on fantasy fiction requires an analysis of why the genre is so ubiquitous, enduring and beloved.

The original Star Wars trilogy famously follows Joseph Campbell's model for the hero's journey, making Luke Skywalker's story the new hero quest for a modern age.

Headstrong heroines and hot-tempered chieftains, loch monsters and hill fairies, cattle raids and clan feuds, wise animals and foolish saints: the Scottish Highlands' folktales date back centuries and preserve the history and beliefs of a people deeply rooted in their land and culture.

When the need for telephone operators arose in the 1870s, the assumption was that they should all be male.

This book covers Joan Newton Cuneo's life, and her roles (from 1905 to 1915) as the premier female racer in the United States and spokeswoman for women drivers and good roads.

Why did the most read work in English literature go without cinematic adaptation for so long?

The anguish endured by agunot (chained) Orthodox Jewish women trapped in unhappy or defunct marriages by husbands who refuse to give them a gett (divorce) reveals the power of religious law even when it conflicts with modern societies' moral and legal norms.

For almost three centuries, the "e;Pennsylvania Dutch"e;--descended from German immigrants--have practiced white magic, known in their dialect as Braucherei (from the German "e;brauchen,"e; to use) or Powwowing.

Csenge Virag Zalka, a Hungarian storyteller, has collected 55 folktales from around the world about supernatural abilities like superhuman strength, invulnerability, flying, heightened senses, speed, invisibility, healing, agility, precognition, telepathy, fire manipulation, teleportation, water powers, and shifting.

This new English translation of the Faroe-Islander Saga (Faereyinga saga)--a great medieval Icelandic saga--tells the story of the first settlers on these wind-swept islands at the edge of the Scandinavian world.

Since the middle of the last century, views on gender norms have shifted dramatically.

The history of the execution of women in the United States has largely been ignored and scholars have given scant attention to gender issues in capital punishment.

Early 20th century non-commercial theaters emerged as hubs of social transformation on both sides of the Atlantic.

Conspiracies have always been part of American culture, but with the rise of social media has come an increase in belief in nontraditional explanations of events.

The origins of the vampire can be traced through oral traditions, ancient texts and archaeological discoveries, its nature varying from one culture to the next up until the 20th century.

On November 8, 1937, a tourist from California named L.

The early chroniclers of Britain presented the island as the promised land of the Roman goddess Diana.

Taking stock of Yiddish literature in 1939, critic Shmuel Niger highlighted the increasing number and importance of women writers.

The Druids and the Arthurian legends are all most of us know about early Britain, from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (4500 BC-AD 43).

Retelling 30 myths and legends of the Eastern Cherokee, this book presents the stories with important details providing a culturally authentic and historically accurate context.

Tracing the development of the King Arthur story in the late Middle Ages, this book explores Arthur's depiction as a wilderness figure, the descendant of the northern Romano-British hunter/warrior god.

Fairies have been revered and feared, sometimes simultaneously, throughout recorded history.

At the 2013 "e;Celebrating The Hobbit"e; conference at Valparaiso University--marking the 75th anniversary of the book's publication and the first installment of Peter Jackson's Hobbit movies--two plenary papers were presented: "e;Anchoring the Myth: The Impact of The Hobbit on Tolkien's Legendarium"e; by John D.

The hit 1992 film A League of Their Own ?

Naomi "e;Omie"e; Wise was drowned by her lover in the waters of North Carolina's Deep River in 1807, and her murder has been remembered in ballad and story for well over two centuries.

Outlander is much more than a television romance about a World War II nurse and a Jacobite soldier in a fetching kilt.

A late-nineteenth century rogues gallery of Americas foremost murderers, bank robbers, con men, forgers, embezzlers, and pickpockets.

Like a character in a Hitchcock movie, Dave McOmie travels the country breaking into bank vaults, cracking jewelry store safes, and decoding unbreakable codes secured deep in government facilities.

Part of our new and growing Myths, Mysteries and Legends series, Myths, Mysteries and Legends of New Mexico explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in the Land of Enchantments history.

Wie geht es weiter mit unsrer Zukunft, in Politik, Gesellschaft, unserem Leben?

A cinematic and vibrant coming-of-age memoir, Chasing the Panther captures the thrilling and, at times, heartbreaking early years of Carolyn Pfeiffer, a pioneering film producer and one of Hollywood's first female executivesa ';mini-mogul' in the words of the Wall Street Journal.

Over fifty years after Jamaican and Trinidadian independence, Imagining Caribbean womanhood examines the links between beauty and politics in the Anglophone Caribbean, providing a first cultural history of Caribbean beauty competitions, spanning from Kingston to London.

Footbinding was common in China until the early twentieth century, when most Chinese were family farmers.

The Me Too movement, started by Black feminist Tarana Burke in 2006, went viral as a hashtag eleven years later after a tweet by white actor Alyssa Milano.