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THIS 48 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: North American Mythology, by Hartley Burr Alexander. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766133427. ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1920Original Publisher: Marshall Jones Co.Subjects: Indians of MexicoIndians of Central AmericaIndians of South AmericaIndian mythologyIndians of North AmericaSocial Science / Folklore ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An amazing mythology collection
I suppose that some of the work in this book, one of a 13 volume set written between 1916 and 1932 (reprinted in the 1960s), has been changed by more recent scholarship, but there is still nothing to equal this fantastic achievement. The set includes not only the more familiar myths such as Greek and Roman, but pretty well succeeds in its goal to include all of humanity. The text is extremely detailed but very readable; none of the turgid prose so often associated with academia. The volumes contain numerous illustrations, both in the text and as plates (mostly black & white.)
One of the most useful parts of the set is the last volume, an extremely detailed index, which allows the reader to pursue a theme, or even a topic as specific as the significance of belts, across all the volumes.The individual volumes do not have their own indices, but the tables of contents are fairly detailed.

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THIS 86 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: North American Mythology, by Hartley Burr Alexander. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766133427. ... Read more

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THIS 74 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: North American Mythology, by Hartley Burr Alexander. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766133427. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

superb
Finally, a book about Indian myths that I can understand!!! ... Read more

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Publisher: [n.p.]Publication date: 1908Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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Most so-called epic novels are the stuff of motion picture blockbusters: classic love stories woven into sweeping historical dramas, diabolical villains whose evil can scarcely be comprehended, great battles with swords and cannons and gigantic armies colliding upon endless flat plains of death. All very theatrical.

But in the real world, for most people, the greatest battles of their lives are the ones fought inside their own heads. And the villains are creatures at once self-created and self-nurtured.

This is the battleground for Where Gods Gamble: a Tale of American Mythology, a flamboyant, free-galloping masterwork of American fiction by C. Bradford Eastland.

Meet Charlie Barnes. Age 24. Bright, college educated, talented, good-looking. And a failure. He certainly has the right to think so, having just returned to Los Angeles from a disastrous two-year journey across the United States and back again, two more years of quitting and failing. He is a man beyond disillusioned. But at least he's back home. Time to give it one last shot. He's at the end of his rope. Time to triumph over, or submit to, the irresistible Furies raging within.

Set against the backdrop of the Iranian Hostage Crisis and colored by some brilliantly rendered panoramas of L.A.'s fabled Santa Anita Racetrack, Where Gods Gamble is Eastland's emotional, personal dance through the heart, mind, history, hope, and failed promise of America. The author pulls no punches regarding the lies our nation tells us right from the cradle. His reluctant hero, young Barnes, is a typical, willing victim of these manufactured myths, these cabals designed to support the status quo. Will he pursue the depressing false security of a "regular" 9-to-5 job? Will he select the far more difficult (yet infinitely more fulfilling) career of a professional gambler? Or will he succumb to his own internal demons trying to sort it all out...

BOSON BOOKS also publishes The Basketball Expatriate by Mr. Eastland. We offer his short stories The Dole and Welcome to Miss Ida Parrot's Bed and Breakfast on our Freebies page. ... Read more

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THIS 26 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: North American Mythology, by Hartley Burr Alexander. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766133427. ... Read more

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THIS 74 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: North American Mythology, by Hartley Burr Alexander. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766133427. ... Read more

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THIS 34 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: North American Mythology, by Hartley Burr Alexander. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766133427. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Social Science / Folklore ... Read more

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In this stimulating study, Mary Weaks-Baxter views the Southern Renaissance, 1900–1960, from a fresh perspective. Many writers in the South began consciously to create new myths for the region at the start of the twentieth century, and these myths, Weaks-Baxter argues, reframed southern history and culture. Instead of being rooted in the plantation culture that had provided inspiration for nineteenth-century southern writers, the new literature was inspired by "southern folk," the common people who farmed the earth and whose values derived from Jeffersonian agrarianism and democracy. By glorifying the yeoman farmer—a figure not only central to southern life but revered throughout the country—southern writers confirmed the essential Americanness of southern literature and the southernness of American history, creating a viable myth that offered the promise of renewal and purpose.

To illustrate how the myth crossed racial, gender, and economic boundaries as well as geographic lines, Weaks-Baxter examines the work of diverse writers, including Willa Cather, Ellen Glasgow, Olive Dargan, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Jesse Stuart, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Harriette Arnow, William Faulkner, and the Nashville Agrarians. Their portrayals of the lives of common men and women provided hope for all Americans as they were confronted with industrialization and the Great Depression. Weaks-Baxter shows how this agrarian fable led to a new Southern Renaissance in the late twentieth century, influencing the work of contemporary southern writers such as Madison Smartt Bell, Wendell Berry, Alice Walker, Dori Sanders, and Bobbie Ann Mason.

With lively arguments and keen insights, Reclaiming the American Farmer will change the terms of discussion about the Southern Renaissance and southern literature in general as it demonstrates how mythologies can unify southerners as well as divide them.

AUTHOR BIO: Mary Weaks-Baxter is Hazel Koch Professor of English at Rockford College in Illinois. She is coeditor of The History of Southern Women’s Literature and Southern Women’s Writing: Colonial to Contemporary. ... Read more

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From the earliest times, people have told stories of gods and goddesses, of mythical creatures and fabulous places in an effort to explain the mysteries of everyday life. ... Read more

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A fascinating exploration of the mythologies of the tribes of North America. ... Read more

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Hitakonanulaxk has done extensive research to recover the tales collected in this volume. The stories tell, among other things, of how Nanapush, the Grandfather of beings and men, created the Earth on the back of the Great Turtle, and how the Lenape people came to live along the Eastern seaboard of what is now the United States of America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Important Window into the Past
The Grandfathers Speak: Native American Folk Tales of the Lenape People is a marvelous small book: it preserves important historical and pre-colonization information about the people who lived in the core of the United States east coast Megalopolis (Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware). The people the Europeans called Indians appear to have lived a relative peaceful life in harmony with nature for thousands of years.The outline of their history is dramatically altered for the worse as Europeans flooded the land. Unlike peoples of Europe and Asia the pressures of population growth were apparently not as great; therefore the stimulus for competitive technological development was apparently less.Advances in weapons, agriculture and medicine occurred at a much slower rate, nevertheless the Neolithic culture outlined in this book was much more advanced and civilized in many ways then it is portrayed in popular media (especially in mid-twentieth century).

I was surprised to learn details of the history of the Lenape people I had never learned of before: my eyes were opened to many more negative effects brought about by the arrival of the colonists.The Grandfathers Speak: Native American Folk Tales of the Lenape People has become an epiphany for me and has lead me to acquire and read several more books about theLenape people such as:

William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania: A Documentary History, 1683 by Albert Cook Myers

The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon Among the Lenapes by M. R. Harrington and Clarence Ellsworth (Illustrator)

I highly recommend this book to be included in a list of supplemental reading for students of American History.

excellent resource
This is an excellent resource for persons who are interested in the Lenape (Delaware) Indian people.The stories are clear and have the use of the Lenape language.

Wonderful Book!
My husband is one quarter Lenape and three quarters German. He grew up hearing a few stories from his Grandmother but she didn't know a lot of her own people's history. He's always been interested in knowing more about his heritage. We moved to New Jersey, near the Raritan River and imagine our suprise when we realized that he'd moved very near to one of the places his people once lived in. I got him this book for Christmas and we LOVED it. We read about Rainbow Crow and Nanapush. He read to me every night in bed, the stories of his people. We found much to be sad over but much more to be joyful for. Whenever we see a Crow now, we smile and we look at eacother. This is a highly recommended book for anyone interested in the history and stories of the Lenape People. ... Read more

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In The Icarus Syndrome, Peter Beinart tells a tale as old as the Greeks -- a story about the seductions of success. Beinart describes Washington on the eve of three wars -- World War One, Vietnam, and Iraq -- three moments when American leaders decided they could remake the world in their image. Each time, leading intellectuals declared that history was over, and the spread of democracy was inevitable. Each time, a president held the nation in the palm of his hand. And each time, a war conceived in arrogance brought untold tragedy.

Customer Reviews (14)

We Never Learn
Peter Beinart has done the detailed research and formed conclusions about American foreign policy that should be read by anyone who thinks there is ever a case for invading another country. Who said that history is boring? I would have until I read "The Icarus Syndrome." Starting with the Wilson era, Beinart shows the development and fluctuation of the invasion and intrusion mentality, which completely ignores understanding world politics until the consequences of our actions result in disasters like Viet Nam, Iraq, and a few others. I can paraphrase this invasion philosophy from someone I know, unfortunately, too well. The reason for going into Iraq was, "Because we can." This and other perceptions of entitlement to do as we want, without considering the risks and consequences, is what has led this country to the current economic chaos and low standing in the world. There's a difference between confidence and hubris. Beinart does an excellent job of talking about that distinction. If only our political leaders could understand this, even more, the population at large. Rather than reading a book that requires the use of intelligence and thinking, instead, the U.S. population watches TV programs, such as, "American Idol," "Ice Road Truckers," and "Eating Freaks." The informed citizens of the United States are not informed, and can't be expected to understand the easy reading style of Beinart. Another recent book I read that fits well with Beinart is "Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters" by Hans Blix. It refers to elements of the hubris that Beinart talks about. It'd be interesting to see the two collaborate.

Good overview of 100 years of varying ideologies behind American foreign policy
The Icarus Syndrome is an overview of American foreign policy over the last 100 years.It attempts to contextualize the actions taken by the US and in particular the actions taken by those with the power to direct foreign policy.It discusses the philosophies of various presidents, people in government and people in the military and discusses the origin of their thinking so that one gets a sense of the intellectual currents that existed that (though mostly still exist in modified form-unsurprisingly) shaped policy in the past.All in all this is an interesting overview of american foreign policy and the characters that shaped it, much of it seems to be an accurate description but this is not an academic account with citations.Through reading this book, one learns about the formation of much foreign policy perspective and ideology and how it was often a natural byproduct of recent key events.The confidence of some of those in power in the rightness of their perspectives and the confidence in extending the logical foundations of their original beliefs to arenas that were less equivalent were manifestations of hubris.The waning of that hubris tends to correspond to the aftermath of actions which take/took the nation beyond its reach and the setting in of the public's reaction to that reality.

The book follows historical chronology and discusses the foreign policy of Wilson to Bush.Many forms of US hubris are discussed.The hubris of reason that was promoted at the turn of the century by Wilson in which it was believed that discussion and respects of the rights of man were sufficient to promote order instead of the desire to balance power.The hubris of containment where the perception that all forms of non US aligned parties shifted the balance of power and were a threat to democracy at large.This is described more as an era of paranoia instead of an era of hubris but nonetheless the paranoia led to an era of hubris about America's reach that led Vietnam.The hubris of the extent of America's reach was ended in this war and subdued for a generation until it resurfaced.This form of hubris which was a combination of belief in both US power as well as democratic ideology (in which Fukuyama's end of history and the natural evolution of all states to democracy is taken way too far) is what is argued, took the US to afghanistan and Iraq.

This is a great narative about the history of american foreign policy.The "evolution" that is described flows very naturally as a product of the various agents own histories. To that effect nothing seems to be controversial about why people ended up believing something different than a previous generation.It is also an excellent account of various perspectives that most of us partially share beliefs with (in more than one category simultaneosly).The effect of which is that we as a reading audience can sympathise with most of the characters irrespective of having differing ideologies. I gave four stars as a lot of people's motives are stated without proof, and though through the lense of the authors narrative, those motives make sense, sufficient detail is not provided.All in all one gets a refreshing course on why history repeats itself and how we fall into believing too much as a result of only our history rather than studying other people's.

Good book, but overpriced for kindle edition
A good book to read - but overpriced for the Kindle edition. $14.99 for the Kindle edition when the hard cover is available for $14.87? That is price gouging by the publishers. What happened to Amazons policy of $9.99 for new books? I would rather get the book from library than buy it for $15 on the e-reader.

Wonder why America is Getting Burned?
`Hubris' it's a Greek word for extreme haughtiness or arrogance. The word was used to describe the actions of those, in Greek tragedy, who challenged the gods or their laws, resulting in their downfall.//The Icarus Syndrome// by Peter Beinart is a chronicle of America's hubris. Spanning a century of time, Beinart tells three stories of success, hubris, disaster, and the search for wisdom. Beinart shows that through the horror and failure of World War One America learned the lessons it need to win World War II. But those tough lessons were forgotten, ignored, and denigrated, until America found itself floundering again in Vietnam. Finally, how the success of capitalism and the USA in a post-coldwar world lead to the hubris of thinking the Middle East could be beaten and liberated simultaneously. Beinart takes great pains to show how successive American generations have had to reconcile American success and optimism with a world that will never fully bend to our wishes and how failures to do so have lead to the tragic loss of American life.

Reviewed by Jonathon Howard

The Icarus Syndrome
Absolutely the best buy and the book is one everyone should read.Knowing the past history of the US gives a true perspective on our attitudes toward the decisions made today in our government. ... Read more