Defending Middle-Earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity – Essential Literary Criticism on Spirit, Ecology, and Ethics for Fans

What are millions of readers all over the world getting out of reading The Lord of the Rings? Newly reissued with a new afterword, Patrick Curry's Defending Middle-earth argues, in part, that Tolkien has found a way to provide something close to spirit in a secular age. His focus is on three main aspects of Tolkien's fiction: the social and political structure of Middle-earth and how the varying cultures within it find common cause in the face of a shared threat; the nature and ecology of Middle-earth and how what we think of as the natural world joins the battle against mindless, mechanized destruction; and the spirituality and ethics of Middle-earth, for which Curry provides a particularly insightful and resonant examination that will deepen the understanding of the millions of fans who have taken The Lord of the Rings to heart.

Patrick Curry, a Canadian-born writer and scholar, is a Tolkien expert featured on the extended DVDs of the films of The Lord of the Rings. He holds a Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science and is the author of Introducing Machiavelli as well as several books and essays of social history.