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The Last Myth: What the Rise of Apocalyptic Thinking Tells Us About America
The Last Myth What the Rise of Apocalyptic Thinking Tells Us About America Author:Mathew Barrett Gross, Mel Gilles During the first dozen years of the twenty-first century--from Y2K through 2012--apocalyptic anticipation in America has leapt from the cultish to the mainstream. Today, nearly 60 percent of Americans believe that the events foretold in the book of Revelation will come true. But it's not just the Christian Right that is obsessed with the end of ... more »the world; secular readers hungry for catastrophe have propelled fiction and nonfiction books about peak oil, global warming, and the end of civilization into best-sellers. How did we come to live in a culture obsessed by the belief that the end is nearly here?
A sweeping historical investigation into the origins of apocalyptic thought and a compelling survey of the dramatic crises we face in the twenty-first century, The Last Myth explains why apocalyptic beliefs are surging within the American mainstream today. Demonstrating that our expectation of the end of the world is a surprisingly recent development in human thought, authors Mathew Barrett Gross and Mel Gilles combine history, current events, and psychological and cultural analysis to reveal the profound influence of apocalyptic thinking on America's past, present, and future.
Engaging, powerful, and insightful, The Last Myth will change the way you look at the world--and its end.
"The Last Myth is book of ideas born out of this moment in time. Rapture. Rupture. Climate change. Change of heart. It is in our nature to live against the edge of apocalypse. Mathew Gross and Mel Giles show us in intelligent and provocative prose that the gift of presence is all we have. This book is one that should be brought to the dinner table for lively and transformative conversation with family and friends. At a time, when so much separates us ideologically, these ideas can unite us in our understanding that the only end of the world we really need to fear is the end of our imagination."
--Terry Tempest Williams, author of When Women Were Birds and The Open Space of Democracy« less