The New Age in the Modern West: Counterculture, Utopia and Prophecy from the Late Eighteenth Century to the Present Day - Softcover

Campion, Nicholas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1350036811 ISBN 13: 9781350036819

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017

Synopsis

New Age culture is generally regarded as a modern manifestation of Western millenarianism - a concept built around the expectation of an imminent historical crisis followed by the inauguration of a golden age which occupies a key place in the history of Western ideas. The New Age in the Modern West argues that New Age culture is part of a family of ideas, including utopianism, which construct alternative futures and drive revolutionary change.

Nicholas Campion traces New Age ideas back to ancient cosmology, and questions the concepts of the Enlightenment and the theory of progress. He considers the contributions of the key figures of the 18th century, the legacy of the astronomer Isaac Newton and the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg, as well as the theosophist, H.P. Blavatsky, the psychologist, C.G. Jung, and the writer and artist, Jose Arguelles. He also pays particular attention to the beat writers of the 1950s, the counterculture of the 1960s, concepts of the Aquarian Age and prophecies of the end of the Maya Calendar in 2012. Lastly he examines neoconservatism as both a reaction against the 1960s and as a utopian phenomenon.

The New Age in the Modern West is an important book for anyone interested in countercultural and revolutionary ideas in the modern West.

About this title

Book Description:

An exploration of the history and development of New Age thinking from the late 18th century to the early 20th century.

About the Author:

Nicholas Campion is Senior Lecturer in the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He is director of the University's Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, and programme director of the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1350036811
• ISBN 13: 9781350036819
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288