Books, Arts & Manners: Myth and the Modern Mind

The Way of the Animal Powers: Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Vol. I, by Joseph Campbell (Harper & Row, 272 pp., $75)

Joseph Campbell is embarked upon an enterprise of the first importance: nothing less than a history of the human mind from its earliest beginnings, an account of how man has understood himself and symbolized in myth the meaning of his existence. In its four volumes, Campbell’s majestic work will take us from the now silent cultures of prehistory through the present. It will follow the human odyssey from the original cross-over from the anthropoids, who did not create symbols for death or awe, to the early humans, who did, and on through subsequent modes of understanding to modern man with his computers and space voyages.

About the Author

Jeffrey Hart

Jeffrey Hart is a contributor to National Review.

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The Way of the Animal Powers: Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Vol. I, by Joseph Campbell (Harper & Row, 272 pp., $75)

Joseph Campbell is embarked upon an enterprise of the first importance: nothing less than a history of the human mind from its earliest beginnings, an account of how man has understood himself and symbolized in myth the meaning of his existence. In its four volumes, Campbell’s majestic work will take us from the now silent cultures of prehistory through the present. It will follow the human odyssey from the original cross-over from the anthropoids, who did not create symbols for death or awe, to the early humans, who did, and on through subsequent modes of understanding to modern man with his computers and space voyages.