A Short History of Myth - Karen Armstrong

"Human beings have always been mythmakers.” So begins best-selling writer  Karen Armstrong’s concise yet compelling investigation into myth: what  it is, how it has evolved, and why we still so desperately need it. She  takes us from the Paleolithic period and the myths of the hunters right  up to the “Great Western Transformation” of the last five hundred years  and the discrediting of myth by science. The history of myth is the  history of humanity, our stories and beliefs, our curiosity and attempts  to understand the world, which link us to our ancestors and each other.  Heralding a major series of retellings of international myths by  authors from around the world, Armstrong’s characteristically insightful  and eloquent book serves as a brilliant and thought-provoking  introduction to myth in the broadest sense—and explains why if we  dismiss it, we do so at our peril.