Just released this month in paperback is Mark Booth's provocative bestseller The Secret History of the World. From mystic revelations to esoteric codes, here is an alternative history of the world, based upon the beliefs of the secret societies. Based on over twenty years of research, Booth offers a radical reinterpretation of human existence and a view of the world previously hidden from us.
Here's a sampling of praise for The Secret History of the World:
"This book will take you on a jaw-dropping journey through the spiritual and mythological history of the world . . . A wonderfully controversial read, which challenges the accepted view and spiritual history of human society."- Soul and Spirit Magazine
"I can say without exaggeration that this book is the best and most accessible treatment of the western esoteric tradition that I have read in decades . . . a scholarly and imaginative masterpiece." - Ronald M. Mazor, Professor of German and French, Winona State University
"A totally engrossing book, an esoteric journey from the beginning of time to the present day, based on beliefs and writings of the secret societies. I loved it!" - Patricia Scanlon, "Books of the Year," The Mail on Sunday.
Author Mark Booth will discuss his controversial book The Secret History of the World at the New York Open Center on Sunday, June 22. Booth will look at how Hebrew prophets, medieval and Renaissance astrologers, and the Freemasons understood the origins of consciousness, the structure of reality, and the purpose of life, and also explore whether we can experience the same supernatural patterns of meaning in our own individual lives that they and other writers steeped in the esoteric tradition, from Sophocles to Cervantes to Dickens to George Eliot to Tolstoy. For more information, call 212.219.2527.
Mark Booth surveys "The Age of Freemasonry" in his new book The Secret History of the World, recently published by Overlook. Included in a fascinating chapter on the secret mission of freemasonry are some interesting bits on George Washington, whose birthday we will celebrate this President's Day weekend. Washington, Booth notes, was initiated as a Freemason in 1752, and eventually became a "Master Mason," the highest rank you can achieve as a Freemason. Who were the original Freemasons? What do they believe, and what influence have they had on the world? Find out in The Secret History of the World.
By: Venetia Butterfield,
on 7/9/2007
Blog:
The Penguin Blog
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Authors,
Web/Tech,
The Future,
second life,
secondlife,
cyberpunk,
cyberspace,
neuromancer,
william gibson,
Add a tag
"Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by
billions of legitimate operators, in every nation ... A graphic
representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in
the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the
nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city
lights, receding."
In 1984 William Gibson invented the word cyberspace in his seminal novel Neuromancer
and today, nearly 25 years later, a growing and significant number of
people are spending increasing amounts of time and money inside
'computer generated constructs', whether they be perhaps the most
analogous to Gibson's idea of cyberspace (Second Life), game-like
(World of Warcraft) or social (facebook).
So when we first started dabbling in
Second Life we quickly realized that something interesting Penguin
could do would be to bring William Gibson into this strange new place,
a place he seemed to have predicted and described years ago (though
he disputes this). Unsurprisingly many of the older residents of Second Life are hardcore sci-fi and cyberpunk fans and dotted around the virtual landscape are a number of sims with a
suitably dystopian
theme. And perhaps now we have a great opportunity to connect an
author and his fans in a totally new, and in this case totally
appropriate, environment.
Over the next few weeks - to celebrate and, yes, promote his new novel Spook
Country - we're planning a range of William Gibson activities in Second Life; we're screening his fine and strange movie No Maps for These Territories;
there's a competition to design an avatar for the man himself; we're
giving away shipping containers packed with Gibson goodies and at the
beginning of August, William Gibson himself will be coming into Second
Life to read from Spook Country and answer questions.
If you want to join in, log into Second Life,
join the Penguin Readers group or get in touch with me virtually by
sending an IM to Jeremy Neumann. We're looking forward to sharing a
consensual hallucination with you.
Jeremy Ettinghausen, Digital Publisher
.............................................................................
Remember that by posting a comment you are agreeing to the website
Terms of Use. If you consider any content on this site to be inappropriate, please report it to Penguin Books by emailing
[email protected]
..............................................................................
Just released this month in paperback is Mark Booth's provocative bestseller The Secret History of the World. From mystic revelations to esoteric codes, here is an alternative history of the world, based upon the beliefs of the secret societies. Based on over twenty years of research, Booth offers a radical reinterpretation of human existence and a view of the world previously hidden from us.
