|
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Gavin Menzies
Product Group: Book
Publisher: William Morrow (2003-01)
ISBN: 0060537639
EAN: 9780060537630
Dewy Decimal #: 910.951
Hardcover: 576 pages
Edition: 1st US Edition
Release Date: 2003-01-07
SKU: 081708005
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comments: no dustjacket...spine is coming apart a little bit...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting...
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
The incredible true story of the discovery of America before Columbus was even born. Gavin Menzies's extraordinary findings rewrite history. On March 8, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China. The ships, huge junks nearly five hundred feet long and built from the finest teak, were under the command of Emperor Zhu Di's loyal eunuch admirals. Their mission was "to proceed all the way to the end of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas" and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. Their journey would last more than two years and circle the globe. When they returned in October 1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in political and economic chaos. The great ships, now considered frivolous, were left to rot at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost in China's long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. Also concealed were how the Chinese colonized America before the Europeans and transplanted to America, Australia, New Zealand and South America the principal economic crops that have fed and clothed the world. Now, in a landmark historical journey, Gavin Menzies, who spent fifteen years tracing the astonishing voyages of the Chinese fleet, shares the remarkable account of his discoveries and the incontrovertible evidence to support them. His compelling narrative pulls together ancient maps, precise navigational knowledge, astronomy and the surviving accounts of Chinese explorers and the later European navigators to prove that the Chinese had also discovered Antarctica, reached Australia three hundred and fifty years before Cook and solved the problem of longitude three hundred years ahead of the Europeans. 1421 describes the artifacts and inscribed stones left behind by the emperor's fleet, the evidence of wrecked junks along its route -- discovered in locations ranging from the middle of the Mississippi River to tributaries of the Amazon -- and the ornate votive offerings left by the Chinese sailors wherever they landed, in honor of Shao Lin, goddess of the sea. 1421: The Year China Discovered America is the story of a remarkable journey of discovery that rewrites our understanding of history. Our knowledge of world exploration as it has been commonly accepted for centuries must now be reconceived due to this classic work of historical detection.
|
Customer Reviews
|
1421, the Year Chinese Discovered America
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-10-28
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Before Columbus started his journey, he already had in his possession a world map presented to the Pope by a Chinee envoy showing the American continent. Since the map already showed the new world (American continent) that means some other people had already been there and in this case the Chinese. Therefore, Columbus's claim that he discovered the new world was a false claim at best. Capt. Menzies listed detailed evidence to argue his case that the Chinese discovered America in 1421, about 100 years before Columbus and he has succeeded.
|
|
A Fine Work of Fiction
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-10-22
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Yet another one of those books that had all the markings of something I would rather use as an assault missile from my deck when the neighboring children get too loud as I'm trying to read.
I wish I could give this a great review. Had Sir Menzies filed his work in the fiction section where it belongs, I may have. But unfortunately, a history this is not. I don't need to give you specifics as they are too plentiful everywhere else.
All I can say is that I really enjoyed the book for many reasons. Among them I now know that literary talent is judged not only by its product but also by its categorization.
|
|
Goodbye to the "Spaceman" theory
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-10-13
This book may not be to everyone's liking, but it does use a great of deal of commonsense with regard to Mankind's perception of geographical knowledge in Medieval times. It makes perfect common sense that people explored the world BEFORE Chris Columbus. He must have had an idea from somewhere, that the 'Final Frontier' was out there.......the way to The Indies....only problem was the American continent got in the way! Or did it?? Did he know, that there was a landmass to the West? Where did he get his maps?
If this book is not to your liking, you must have a mind that is welded shut to the reception of new ideas.
|
|
Excellent history
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-10-06
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
A must read and a corrective of the present history of the discovery of America by Columbus. The cruelness of the emperor and his vision of a great "market" and "friends" across the seas are truly fascinating and understandable, yet frightening. The "proofs" and evidence presented make this the most wonderfully believable part of history not yet exposed.
|
|
Fact/Fiction who cares......
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-09-11
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
You have to admit the author has ALOT and I do mean ALOT of evidence to prove that something went on long before Columbus got here. I think most of the proof lies with the plants, crops, animals and of course the wreckages found along the coasts. The ships lost alone is proof enough that the Chinese were in fact out there and discovering the world long before others. The maps used by others alone is proof. This auther has given history a swift kick in the pants and those who record it need to get some pretty big erasers. Get the book. Worth the read and the education.
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Alan Hunter, Jay Sexton
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (1999-06-12)
ISBN: 0312221479
EAN: 9780312221478
Dewy Decimal #: 951
Paperback: 240 pages
SKU: 081408001
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: ...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting...
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
Contemporary China is a lively account of China today which focuses on the late 1990s. The Maoist era and the early 1980s were certainly formative, but China now faces a range of new issues like unemployment, crime, and environmental pollution that demand a fresh look. The authors discuss recent history, politics, the economy, society and culture, and international relations. They are alert to the international implications of China's growing power, yet caution against alarmist predictions of China as a threat to the international community.
|
Customer Reviews
|
An excellent textbook
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-01-09
0 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is an excellent book, information and points presented with great clarty. Two suggestions to the author: 1)update the book as soon as possible; 2)increase the numbers of topics to thirteen for the convenience of college use (one topic for one week)
|
|
A Concise and Accurate Account that is Surprisingly Current
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-12-25
6 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is the best introductory book on contemporary China that I've seen so far. The greatest strength of the book is its combination of conciseness and accuracy. The book packs an amazing amount of information in about 200 pages and is full of insightful analyses. The authors were very careful in including only those facts that help the reader gain insights into the politics, economics and socio-cultural characteristics of the country. They not only present the key historical events in the country's (particularly recent) evolution but also explain carefully why these events occurred and what their influences on the country's subsequent evolution are. Some of those explanations inevitably involve speculations, but the authors consistently offer insights from the best sources and give a balanced assessment of the differing views on most of the issues that are still unsettled in the academic community.
Given the lightning speed of China's recent development, one may justifiably question whether the book, published in 1999, is to a significant extent outdated. I myself made the mistake of dismissing it initially when I was trying to choose a book for a university class that I was asked to teach. I later found out, however, that the recentness of a book's publication does not affect its relevancy as much as it may seem to. Two factors work in the book's favor in this regard. First, the research for the book was done in the late 1990s when China was already on a path of rapid economic reform and development. The fact that the country has been following that trajectory since then keeps the descriptions and predictions of book highly relevant. Second, even though the authors present both optimistic and pessimistic predictions on the prospects for the country's evolution, their discussions clearly make the relative optimistic predictions look highly plausible. The fact China has evolved along the path predicted by the optimists since the late 1990s further helps the book to retain its relevance.
Finally, I'd like to compare this book with a couple of other books that I've also examined. I'll do this, however, after I tell you how I eventually chose this book for my class. I was asked to teach an undergraduate course on doing business in China in 2004. Even though this book came to my attention at the time, I simply dismissed it as "too old" without even giving it a careful evaluation. My rash decision was partly due to the time pressure I faced. I instead chose two other books that were published more recently. The book that I used to give my students (most of whom had very limited knowledge about China) some background information is Understanding China by John Bryan Starr (Hill and Wang, 2001). This book provides an accurate account of the country's historical evolution and contains many good insights, but my students found its coverage to be lengthy and too detailed. I also believe that the author is a little too pessimistic about the China's future evolution in the near to medium term. So, I decided to search again when I was later asked to teach a graduate version of the course to MBA students. One book for which I initially had high expectations is Understanding Contemporary China edited by Robert E. Game (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003). The format of the book looks excellent, with each chapter written by an expert on a key aspect of the country. The quality of the chapters, however, is uneven. A common weakness across several chapters is that they are over-laden with facts and often do not explain why a certain event occurred or how it influenced the country's subsequent development. Some chapters also contain too many errors in my assessment. Of the other books that I also examined, most either go well beyond a simple introduction or focus narrowly on one aspect of the country (e.g., economic development) and are thus inappropriate for my students. In short, I find this book to be the best introductory book on contemporary China at the present time. I just hope that the publisher and authors will update the book soon.
|
|
by Fernand Braudel (Translator: Sian Reynolds)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Perennial (1992-04)
ISBN: 0060921420
EAN: 9780060921422
Paperback: 784 pages
SKU: 092808013
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...creases in spine...edge wear on cover
More Product Infomation
|
|
|
by Fernand Braudel (Translator: Sian Reynolds)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Perennial (1992-04)
ISBN: 0060921420
EAN: 9780060921422
Paperback: 784 pages
SKU: 092808013
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...creases in spine...edge wear on cover
More Product Infomation
|
|
|
by Fernand Braudel (Translator: Sian Reynolds)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Perennial (1992-04)
ISBN: 0060921420
EAN: 9780060921422
Paperback: 784 pages
SKU: 092808013
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...creases in spine...edge wear on cover
More Product Infomation
|
|
|
by Marvin B. Becker
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr (1982-01)
ISBN: 0253152941
EAN: 9780253152947
Dewy Decimal #: 945
Hardcover: 242 pages
SKU: 050108039
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No Underlining or Highlighting in text...sticker and minor wear on dustjacket
More Product Infomation
|
(Larger Image)
|
by Michael Judge
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Arcade Publishing (2004-11-15)
ISBN: 1559707461
EAN: 9781559707466
Dewy Decimal #: 529.3
Hardcover: 262 pages
SKU: 110908043
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...no markings or highlighting...lots of creased page corners...light shelf wear on cover
More Product Infomation
|
Customer Reviews
|
An Imaginative Time Journey thru the Ages
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-01-11
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
As a general reader, I liked the author's poetical, appreciative and sometimes fascinatingly historical, journey thru the months of the year, from antique times onward. Beneath the simplicity of style lies the author's spirit, wisdom and humor - and I think you can't get all the information on the first reading. Besides the months & seasons, there's the holidaze celebrations. In all, this is an imaginative book.
|
|
Florid style covers up any actual information book may or may not contain
Rating (1)
Date: 2007-06-20
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
When I got this book, I expected a history of our calendar and its links to the ancient world written for regular people as opposed to scholars. The writing is fluid, but so florid that it's hard to get actual information out of it. The writing is so self-indulgently flowery that it disguises the message rather than delivering it. Since the subject matter is in fact nonfiction, this is not a particularly effective style.
There are a lot of books out there on the history of the calendar that ARE readable, even to the non-academic. This one is not worth buying.
|
|
Not What it Seems To Be
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-02-25
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
I came across this little paperback tucked in between more impressive-looking tomes at the bookstore in the European History section. If not for the subtitle, "A Miscellany of History and Myth, Religion and Astronomy, Festivals and Feast Days," I'd never have bought it, because the title proper does not satisfactorily describe the content. I am not interested in TIME, per se, but I did write a master's thesis in folkart and am very interested in all kinds of folklore, genealogy, ritual, and comparative religion. So I bought it and have loved it...great bedside companion on these wintry nights. A huge bonus is the beautiful writing style of Mr. Judge - he makes pictures in my head - the highest praise of this artist/folklorist. The book justifies the deep human yearning to celebrate the cycles of the natural world without having to deny one's more conventional religious upbringing (no doubt a growing concern since paganism is one of the fastest growing religions). Comforting.
|
|
Not meant to be a thorough exploration of the calendar
Rating (3)
Date: 2007-02-20
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
It's a little disconcerting writing a review of a book when you know the author himself reads them!
The key word in the title of this book is "miscelleny". I think I was hoping for a more comprehensive and studious tour through the wilds of the history of our calendar and how it came to be what it is today. Although it's clear that research was done and a history of how the calendar came to be is indeed tackled, it's all a bit... well, flowery, for my tastes.
Here's a small sampling of what I mean:
"...Deneb glittering in her beak like a diamond she's plucked from an Eastern treasure horde. High above both, ruby-red Arcturus marks the heel of the kindly shepherd Bootes, who drives the stars of spring across the sky. Orion flees, humbled, below the western horizon..."
It's all well and good, it's just not for me. I'd guess that references to "lovemaking" and related terms are actually used more often than references to the word "calendar". If you enjoy stories and myths from Greek and Roman times, with a smattering from the Celts, Germans, and other "westerners", told somewhat floridly, you'll like this.
One thing that sticks with me is the disturbing story of the Wicker Man. It, and some of the other tales, made me want to know more (how long did this go on, how wide-spread was it, who was chosen to be the victims, etc.), but I kept coming back to that word "miscellany"... it's not MEANT to be thorough.
So to sum up I'd say the book delivers what the title promises, but didn't satisfy my curiosity about the subject!
|
|
Beautiful Book For A Long Wintry Night
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-12-20
8 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is actually the wife of the Amazon member. I bought this back in the summer, at the solstice. How quickly i found myself at another, albeit more starkly beautiful solstice ..... The depth of knowledge and the beauty of the prose is outstanding. As one familiar with world religions, anthropology, mythology and the like, i found this book to be a refreshing change from so much of what is currenty available through the new age/earth religion venue: this book is absolutey stunning and will pass the test of time. I brought it to work with me, and it is my companion for this year's quiet, solitary solstice. Such a balm for the spirit, and a comfort ......highly recommended.
|
(Larger Image)
|
by (Reader: Karen Armstrong)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Random House Audio (2006-03-28)
ISBN: 0739325329
EAN: 9780739325322
Dewy Decimal #: 200.9014
Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Release Date: 2006-03-28
SKU: 100308022
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: box is creased but discs should be fine
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
From one of the world’s leading writers on religion and the highly acclaimed author of the bestselling A History of God, The Battle for God and The Spiral Staircase, comes a major new work: a chronicle of one of the most important intellectual revolutions in world history and its relevance to our own time.
In one astonishing, short period – the ninth century BCE – the peoples of four distinct regions of the civilized world created the religious and philosophical traditions that have continued to nourish humanity into the present day: Confucianism and Daoism in China; Hinduism and Buddhism in India; monotheism in Israel; and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Historians call this the Axial Age because of its central importance to humanity’s spiritual development. Now, Karen Armstrong traces the rise and development of this
transformative moment in history, examining the brilliant contributions to these traditions made by such figures as the Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Ezekiel.
Armstrong makes clear that despite some differences of emphasis, there was remarkable consensus among these religions and philosophies: each insisted on the primacy of compassion over hatred and violence. She illuminates what this “family” resemblance reveals about the religious impulse and quest of humankind. And she goes beyond spiritual archaeology, delving into the ways in which these Axial Age beliefs can present an instructive and thought-provoking challenge to the ways we think about and practice religion today.
A revelation of humankind’s early shared imperatives, yearnings and inspired solutions – as salutary as it
is fascinating.
Excerpt from The Great Transformation:
In our global world, we can no longer afford a parochial or exclusive vision. We must learn to live and behave as though people in remote parts of the globe were as important as ourselves. The sages of the Axial Age did not create their compassionate ethic in idyllic circumstances. Each tradition developed in societies like our own that were torn apart by violence and warfare as never before; indeed, the first catalyst of religious change was usually a visceral rejection of the aggression that the sages witnessed all around them. . . .
All the great traditions that were created at this time are in agreement about the supreme importance of charity and benevolence, and this tells us something important about our humanity.
From the Hardcover edition.
|
Customer Reviews
|
The Great Bifurcation: Man vs the Mob
Rating (1)
Date: 2008-06-15
0 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
"The position men have given to Jesus is a position of authority. It characterizes themselves. It cannot alter the eternal facts. Great is the soul, and plain. It is no flatterer, it is no follower; it never appeals from itself. It always believes in itself." Emerson, 'the Oversoul'
"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty." Plato, Republic
The Great Transformation is a great intro to the ancient world. Its argument, however, treats its subjects with facile interpretations and an affected taste for the grandiose in religion--if it is remotely masculine, it is primitive backwards and evil (i.e. natural, empirical, scientific, reasoned), and if it is pacifistic, nihilistic or paternalistic, it is good (i.e. sublime, sycophantic, pity evoking, 'civic' ect.) Of course, the author is not above contradicting herself to push her existentially schizophrenic views on the ancients in relation to these tastes.
The main problem with her treatment of the main concept of Ahimsa in her thesis is that it is not only appropriated from Karl Jaspers "Axial Philosophers", it is a blatant distortion and misrepresentation of it. I quote here from Jaspers' section on the Buddha:
"Accordingly, the Buddhist monks were ENJOINED TO TRUTHFULLNESS both in their deepsest thoughts and in the actions and words of everyday life. They were further enjoined to be chaste, to abstain from intoxicating drink, not to steal, NOT TO HARM AN LIVING CREATURE (AHIMSA), and to observe the four modes of inner conduct: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity toward the impure and the evil."
--All caps are my own.
In Armstrong's formula, ahimsa is not only the antipode of violence but also against aristocracy, nobility, passion, reason/logic, science ect.; these are not only bad, but moreover EVIL. What is more, by implication these are what the modern world is in excess of according to her, and the source of such horrors as genocide, racism, chauvinism, people watching television for too many hours, school shootings et al. The logic is impeccable, but gives no insight into the eras discussed, rather, to Armstrong, history is to be read as an exegesis of the present: an exercise in intellectual narcissism of the first order.
On the contrary, her distortion of ahimsa as total rejection of violence is an ultimately indefensible ethical position: pacifism requires one to look on as a neighbor is robbed, a spouse raped, one's self beaten. It precludes the duty of self-defense and mutual aid in the service thereof at the price of Liberty. Armstrong is demanding annihilation over Liberty, annihilation as liberty, the ancient nihilist formula. A simple examination between aristocratically or monarchically lead rebellions and mob incited ones in history demonstrates which side has less in the ways of ethical principles, respect for human life ect. Mass wave attacks, guillotines and clamor for privilege vs. careful planning, a desire for liberty and the will to protect it for one's self and one's neighbors. Plato was right, Armstrong needs to stop tracing shadows.
Synopsis:
The leaps in logic are Evil Kieneval worthy but not unexpected coming from a existential farce pusher, who fails to extirpate the dangers perceived, let alone pose them coherently, whereas she does succeeds to promote every Myth that constitute the problems of which she is so superficially aware of and incapable of articulating. For example, non-violence means to Armstrong, that the Greeks were violent egotists who wasted their time being agonal and engaging in stuffy rational discourse; their establishment of science and philosophy, art and culture were O.K. Therefore, Buddhists and Confucians were more ethical. Lao Tzu was very significant, but since he more or less presented a system of metaphysics, ethics and epistemology different from Confucious, so he really is inferior to Confucious since he had more 'social conscience' [class conscious you mean?]. From this, early Judea was not a rabble of tribes but an advanced civilization, who established the foundation of Western Civilization [everywhere else, an oxymoron to proletarian Armstrong] because the apologist for their violent excursions and war deity Yahweh was Jesus, and Jesus was great. Plato and Aristotle tried, but since they believed ocholcracy was dangerous and supported other forms of social organization, they were tyrants and tyrants [individuals, e.g. Socrates] are enemies of the people. There are no such things as Ancient Egypt or Babylon.
The book's coherence hangs not so much by a thread, than as by levitation. The ethical insights are banal and platitudinous. The purpose of the book is not history or even a period of ethical discovery; it's the pedantic sermonizing of a snob telling you what you ought to believe and think about such things.
The Great Transformation is not about the ancient world, it is an extended justification of Armstrong's snobbish and puddle-shallow bourgeois spirituality interspersed with monumental ethical pretensions. The narrative exists solely as the means an indictment against aspects of the world that affirm ethical world views other than her own, which are in the main an eclectic collection of guileless and shameless pacifistic, nihilistic and fatalistic platitudes; these profound mores establish her place in the world of letters as educator and shepherd. "Bravo" --Still, plenty of heads will nod.
A final joke which runs counter to everything in The Great Transformation:
Q: Who are the greatest figures in Western history?
A: Jesus and Socrates, of course.
Q: Who killed Jesus and Socrates?
A: Democracy killed Jesus and Socrates.
The Great transformation ignores the single most important ethical question of the era as lived and died for by Jesus and Socrates: man vs the mob, liberty vs security, freedom vs equality (slavery). Armstrong either choses not to see this great bifurcation that runs through the history of human civilization that sacrifices man for ideals and mobs, or she herself is a crypto-advocate of the latter--via pacifism (Lay down and die.)
"The reliance on authority measures the decline of religion, the withdrawal of the soul." Emerson, "the Oversoul"
Armstrong asks us to rely on the authority of the so called Axials, when the future of mankind rests on the actions of morally autonomous agents ethically independent of ideology and dogma.
"Your silence gives consent."
--Plato
|
|
Not What I Was Hoping For
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-05-26
2 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
I really, really wanted to like this book. Its premise is compelling; during the so-called "Axial Age"--that is, from 1600 to 900 BC--world events led to the rise of four great religious traditions: the development of Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Earlier beliefs that the gods (plural) were to be worshipped for their ability to bring bounty to a particular people or to assist them in territorial warfare evolved to the point where other-directed love and service, empathy, and compassion became the most important considerations. Because this is my own personal ethos, I was interested to understand the historical context that gave birth to such thinking. But Armstrong is a religious scholar; in her quest for comprehensive accuracy, she bogs down in too many details that are irrelevant to the lay reader. (A psychologist might call her obsessive-compulsive or at least note that she would be an "over-incorporator" in Rorschach terms.) A Reader's Digest condensed version of this tome would have been welcome. But I became stuck around page 274, unable to trudge through the next 200 pages to the end. Pity, as I was just starting to get to the good stuff. But her accounting of too many tribal migrations and temple desecrations had killed off my interest by then.
|
|
kumbaya
Rating (2)
Date: 2008-02-27
2 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful
It started off badly when the narrative began with the notion that once upon a time proto-Aryans lived peacefully and justly until etc.
I found the historic events described to support the "axial" thesis rather selective, and the manner of their interpretation contrived.
Not an honest historical account.
|
|
Lucid reading
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-02-18
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Extremely well-written record of the Axial ages, of the Axial people and the Axial spirituality. This book traces the history of the Aryans, the vedic people in India; the Greeks and their times; the Jews and their spirituality and rituals; the Chinese people and their history. This book is the precursor of Karen Armstrong's book "The history of God".
See my detailed review at [..]
|
|
Intruiging exploration of our religious past
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-01-19
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Karen Armstrong, a commentator and historian of the world's religions, adds to her writings another interesting exploration of the roots and origins of the world's faiths. In this study, Armstrong in particular examines the crucial period originally called the 'Axial Age' by the existentialist thinker and theologian Karl Jaspers, though updated to reflect the new findings by historians and archeaologists about the origins of the world's major faiths. Armstrong examines the founders of the Semitic, Chinese, Greek and Indian religions and their underlying current of the need to curtail and restrain violence and develop the emotional capacity for compassion for the other, in the face of the often great brutality that plagued the world in that time period.
Armstrong ends by arguing the message of the founders of the world's religious traditions still have relevance today, particularly in the disturbing trends of increasing selfishness, violence and greed that seem to mark a globalised, capitalist world. While the apocalyptic tone of some of Armstrong's fears go a bit over the top, I think her careful scholarship does tell us something important about the origins of religions and the role they have to play in our emotional life.
|
|
|
by (Editor: Mary Ann Frese Witt)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company (2000-10-23)
ISBN: 0618045384
EAN: 9780618045389
Dewy Decimal #: 909.09821
Paperback: 545 pages
Edition: 6
SKU: 033008AC28
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comments: torn cover along spine about 2 inches...curled and creased corner
More Product Infomation
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
The Humanities provides an overview of the liberal arts, including literature, art, music, philosophy, and history. The book comes equipped with numerous pedagogical aids, including a web site that features 50–60 art images. Each volume begins with a "Chronicle of Events," which provides a timetable of key events in world history. "Continuities" sections—which cover political life, religion, art, music, and writing—summarize each part of the text by reviewing the lasting contributions of each society.
|
|
|
|
|
|