I thoroughly enjoyed every book of hers that I've read. In this brief, sweet sequence, we glimpse a new myth being born. Mr. Armstrong is one of the best authors in the field of theology. Atlas very sensibly decides to leave Heracles with the weight, but Heracles tricks Atlas into taking the world back onto his shoulders. For such a huge subject, it is a small text but only in size. A short history of myth (audio book) About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features © 2020 Google LLC ", "Well, yes, it is dark, but there are advantages -- for instance, if you see someone you'd rather not speak to you can always pretend you haven't recognised them.". and this leads to questions of autobiography. Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices. If there is an ounce of curiosity left uncaptured by cynicism... then be brave...without prejudice...risk. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Please try again. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2012. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Armstrong takes us from the Palaeolithic period and the myths of the hunters right up to the “Great Western Transformation” of the last five hundred years and the discrediting of myth by science. THIS ESSAY. Or there's no difference. Armstrong does try to paint on a broad canvas to deal with an aspect of humanity which is much overlooked. This brilliant, readable synthesis of the history of mythology and the function it serves to humanity is the launch title of the groundbreaking publishing event, The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts, A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness, In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis, The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World), This is an pedestrian study from the noted and popular religion scholar, in which Armstrong takes a historical approach to myth, tracing its evolution through a series of periods, from the Paleolithic to the postmyth Great Western Transformation. This is still a good book to have. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Karen Armstrong's concise yet compelling investigation into the history of myth takes us from the Palaeolithic period and the mythology of the hunters right up to the 'Great Western Transformation' of the last 500 years. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. 573 reviews. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. For him? "A Short History of Myth" is a handy stand-alone overview of the ever-evolving partnership between myth and man from Paleolithic times to the present. A Short History of Myth Karen Armstrong, Author. She has demonstrated a remarkably balanced view of the religions of the world. If you're looking for someone to give you a quick gallop through the evolution of mythology, some of its central preoccupations and some key starting points for a further exploration into the world of myth, then Armstrong is your woman. Her comparisons of thought are very clear. For instance, in 1998 he started releasing inexpensive paperbacks of the books of the Bible under the series title Pocket Canons, each introduced by a different author: Fay Weldon on Corinthians, Bono on the Psalms, Ruth Rendell on Romans and Will Self on Revelations. Heracles has also fallen afoul of the gods, but through an accident of birth. It's difficult not to recast this achievement in pop-culture terms -- Monster Mythology Smackdown! Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2018. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. In an easy-to-read direct fashion. Her account of Atlas and Laika made me wish she would. Karen Armstrong’s first book, the bestselling Through the Narrow Gate (1981), described her seven years as a nun in a Roman Catholic order. "The Neanderthal graves show that when these early people became conscious of their mortality, they created some sort of counter-narrative that enabled them to come to terms with it.". Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2011. This mythos covers cave paintings and cosmoes. I believe I'm going to hand this book onto my 10-year-old niece who's expressed an interest in Greek and Roman mythology. OTHER BOOKS. Her explanation of Karl Jaspers is deft and accessible with much of interest in the evolution of mythical ideas through the Axial and Post-Axial Ages. Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2019. How have they evolved? It's a poignant story -- who doesn't sympathize with Atlas, especially when he's contrasted with the bullying, bragging Heracles? More By and About This Author. The history of myth is the history of humanity, our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts to understand the world, which link us to our ancestors and each other. If you're looking for someone to give you a quick gallop through the evolution of mythology, some of its central preoccupations and some key starting points for a further exploration into the world of myth, then Armstrong is your woman. We also see Penelope's grief, well-salted with guilt, for the 12 serving maidens who were slain upon her husband's return home. This is an excellent overview of the subject, one that I'll return to. Only in its last pages does Winterson's book finally soar, when she introduces Atlas to Laika, the Russian dog sent into space in 1957. Although long aware of Karen Armstrong's work, I had never picked up any of her books until A Short History of Myth was assigned as a class text in the course on the history of children's literature I took while getting my masters. People thought that gods, humans, animals and nature were inextricably bound up together, subject to the same laws, and composed of the same divine substance. This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. There was a problem loading your book clubs. Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2020, The book is vital to your whole western culture because we have moved to reading of the scared books as fact instead of realizing that they serve us only if we understand it to be the myth that they are. I believe there is always exposure, vulnerability, in the writing process, which is not to say it is either confessional or memoir. Please try again. She attended St Anne's College, Oxford, while in the convent and majored in English. It is particularly refreshing here to find a reasonable, coherent argument that just is. On the whole, I found it an interesting book. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Further, Armstrong's succinct comment that 'the myth of the hero was not intended to provide us with icons to admire, but was designed to tap into the vein of heroism within ourselves' is an idea that novelists such as Madeline Miller take up in their work (my review of Miller's 'Circe' follows this one). Carrying something he wanted to keep, and slightly maddening by 21st-century standards -- waited... 1500 ), Brilliance audio ; Unabridged edition ( May 4, )! So that even a novice reader would enjoy this book onto my 10-year-old who!... without prejudice... risk she leaves us at the end of Weight prejudice... risk on 3. Exactly the right version or edition of a History of myth, Karen Armstrong author. 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