ENGLISH

The Heroic Ideal : Western Archetypes from the Greeks to the Present

By M. Gregory Kendrick

Book information

Publisher
McFarland
Year
2010
ISBN
9780786457519
Language
english
Format
EPUB
Filesize
1 MB (1194348 bytes)
Pages
236\0
Topic
History
Time added
2016-06-06 16:48:14
European civilization,heroesheroismidealsMentalitätsgeschichtementalité

Description

The word "hero" seems in its present usage, an all-purpose moniker applied to everyone from Medal of Honor recipients to celebrities to comic book characters. This book explores the Western idea of the hero, from its initial use in ancient Greece, where it identified demigods or aristocratic, mortal warriors, through today. Sections examine the concept of the hero as presented in the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds. Special attention is paid to particular heroic types, such as warriors, martyrs, athletes, knights, saints, scientists, rebels, secret servicemen, and even anti-heroes. This book also reconstructs how definitions of heroism have been inextricably linked to shifts in Western thinking about religion, social relations, political authority, and ethical conduct. M. Gregory Kendrick is a professor of modern European history and director of the UCLA Freshman Cluster Program at the University of California in Los Angeles.

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