Dear List.
I'd like to announce publication publication of my new book, The New Age in
the Modern West, Counter-Culture, Utopia and Prophecy from the late
Eighteenth Century to the Present Day, just out from Bloomsbury. Among the
topics I cover are a reconsideration of the 1960s as a period of utopian
hope, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as a quasi-metaphysical attempt to
manipulate history
One of the starting points of the book is the cultural impact of Plato's
statement in the Timaeus that great periods of history correspond to the
complete cycles of the planets. Platonism bequeathed western culture a view
of history as purposeful and directional, that was reinforced by Christian
cosmology. Eventually, in the 18th century, this led to the formulation of
the theory of progress. The substance of the book begins in the 18th century
with Newton's use of precession to date historical events in the
'Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended'. By the 1790s this idea had led to
the formulation of the notion of astrological ages, and the Aquarian Age.
The book ends with an examination of the 2012 Maya Prophecy Movement and a
final chapter on American Neoconservatism and the 2003 invasion of Iraq as
the latest manifestation of the Platonic idea that history has direction and
purpose.
Please take a look here:
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-new-age-in-the-modern-west-9781472522795/
Nick
Dr Nicholas Campion,
Director, Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture,
Senior Lecturer, School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology,
Faculty of Humanities and the Performing Arts,
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
|