Each book in the comprehensive World History Series offers a clearly written and visually enhanced overview of an important historical event or period. The series itself contains many unique and interesting features; including a wide range of primary and secondary source quotations that richly supplement the fascinating narratives in each volume. The quotations range from unusual anecdotes to farsighted cultural perspectives and are drawn from historical witnesses both past and present. Most important of all; the World History Series is designed both to acquaint readers with the basics of history and to make them aware that their lives and their own historical era are an intimate part of the ongoing human saga.
#5423628 in BooksColor: Other 2001-01-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .50 x 5.98l; .71 #File Name: 158963036X220 pages
Review
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Excellent resource material...By Jason CooperTogether with Thomas Wrights; Worship of the Generative Organs in Medaevil Western Europe; an almost complete picture is drawn displaying how much embedded religion can endure despite duress. I believe it is from this model; and that of Alexander Hislop; that Joseph Campbell built the foundations of his prolific career. The importance of symbols in ancient culture was absolute. To an illiterate populace; or one without written language for that matter; symbols of worship were a unifying commonality (as well; a method of control by those who interpretted those symbols) as much as language and media are to cultures today. The glaring question remains though. How could the widespread practice of one religion with exact means of worship occur considering the current stance of historians and anthropologists? If one were to weigh the evidence with the scales of scientific reasoning the balance would surely tip in favour of the opposition to the modern understanding of cultural derivation. Read it. Enjoy it. See its relevancy today.3 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Great Book; but more of a primary source for its time than a good secondary source on ancient timesBy CustomerIt never fails to mystify me that people will take a very old work of quasi-scholarship by an amateur and decide that it puts all later; more professional scholarship on it's head; simply because it tells them something they like. Put this book in the context of its creation and it's a fascinating view into late 18th/early 19th century views of the past; religion; the evolution of man; etc. Otherwise; your entire argument rests on the dubious notion that some person just happened to know something; some group of facts that no one else did or has since; and so they are speaking "truth" and all the many others; trained; practiced; and informed to a level unimagined by the amateur are somehow just deluded. Let's not forget the enormous amount of archaeological and linguistic data we have accumulated in the past 200 years; or the development of better methodologies for understanding one's own biases.And by the way; Joseph Campbell's career; if you will; had its genesis in Jung and a lot of reading in Sanskrit texts; not 18th and 19th century armchair social science.6 of 7 people found the following review helpful. A classic workBy A CustomerA complete study of the practice of sexual superstition in ancient times and during the middle ages. A classic work.
