Paradise

by Rushby, Kevin

• ISBN13: 9780786719105
• ISBN10: 0786719109
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-12
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

The paradise myth has been one of the most powerful motivators in human history, influencing and energizing all kinds of individuals and groups. From the Assassins of twelfth-century Persia to the Pilgrim Fathers of America; from Pythagoras to modern-day downsizers, there have always been those who would seek perfection on earth. This hope for an earthly paradise drives humanity onwards, pressing for change and offering salvation. Yet it also comes attached to religious beliefs such as Armageddon, original sin and martyrdom-all notions that influence modern life even when hidden beneath a veneer of secularism.

Author Biography

Kevin Rushby has lived and worked in the Sudan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Yemen. A full-time writer, he is also the author of Eating the Flowers of Paradise, Children of Kali, Hunting Pirate Heaven, and Chasing the Mountain of Light.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	xi
Origins: 800 BC--AD 1000	1	(36)
Pythagoras and Harmony	8	(7)
Apocalypse and Eden	15	(12)
Muhammad and the Perfect Man	27	(10)
Hastening the Apocalypse: 1000--1500	37	(42)
Martyrs, Messiahs and Assassins	45	(8)
Crusaders and Last Days	53	(14)
Christopher Columbus Discovers Eden	67	(12)
New Edens in an Old World: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries	79	(70)
New Routes to Paradise: Relics and Indulgences	84	(8)
The Collectors	92	(15)
The English Eden	107	(13)
The Separatists Head for America	120	(4)
The Birth of Science	124	(13)
The Decline and Fall of Witchcraft	137	(5)
Selling the American Eden	142	(7)
The Modern Paradise: 1700--1945	149	(54)
The Comforts of the New Earthly Paradise	154	(7)
Creating the New Adam	161	(9)
Robert Owen and the Godless Millennium	170	(13)
Religious America Tries to Build a New Adam	183	(9)
Social Darwinism: Eden by Eradication	192	(11)
Consumer Idylls of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries: Rural Retreats and Shopping Malls	203	(22)
A Consumer Durable Eden	208	(8)
`Wilderness is Paradise Enow'	216	(9)
Epilogue	225	(4)
Notes	229	(24)
Selected Bibliography	253	(6)
Index	259