The myth of the West : America as the last empire / Jan Willem Schulte Nordholt ; translated by Herbert H. Rowen.
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true Manchester, Main Library - Non Fiction 973.01 SCHULTE NORDHOLT
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- 载体形态
- xi, 227 pages ; 23 cm
- 书目
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- 内容
- Prologue in the Old World -- A New World in the West -- England -- A city on a hill -- The vision of philosophers -- The American reply -- The dilemma of the past -- The wilderness as pastoral -- The last frontier -- Territorial expansion -- The circle closed -- Translatio Imperii -- The myth of the West.
- 摘要
- The subject of this fascinating book is the rise, flourishing, and decline of the heliotropic myth, the centuries-old belief that all history is a succession of great civilizations developing, like the movement of the sun, from the East to the West. America is in this vision the last empire, indeed, the fulfillment of history. Esteemed historian Jan Willem Schulte Nordholt draws on works of world poetry and other sources in describing the importance of the heliotropic myth and shows how the expectation of a final completion of history gave meaning and coherence to our civilization and how the mythic yearning for a better world drove our ancestors to distant lands ever farther westward. Now in the twentieth century, with all western horizons gone and the realities of societal life - even in America - not so utopian, we no longer dare to believe in the values of the West and prefer to live instead with an extraordinarily tolerant cultural relativism. With the approach of the new millennium - once predicted by the heliotropic myth to be a time of brilliant living - Schulte Nordholt's work not only offers a perspective that will enhance all areas of study in American and world history, but provokes a fresh desire for the real meaning of human history.
- 主题
- United States -- History -- Philosophy.
- Philosophy.
- United States.
- Mythos.
- Amerika.
- United States -- History -- Philosophy.
- Mythos.
- 类型/表格
- History.
- 其它责任者
- Rowen, Herbert Harvey.
- 附加题名
- Mythe van het Westen. English
- 其他表格:
- Online version: Schulte Nordholt, J.W., 1920-1995. Mythe van het Westen. English. Myth of the West. Grand Rapids, Mich. : William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., ©1995 (OCoLC)624344456
- 国际标准书号
- 080283793X (alkaline paper)
- 9780802837936 (alkaline paper)