In this critical history of the rise and development of interest in myth from 1680 to 1860, sixty selections from authors of the period show how most of the current theories about myth were “”anticipated, indeed proposed, debated, analyzed, and elaborated”” during these years. The authors provide critical introductions with bibliographies for the individual selections and a general bibliography of works on myth published from 1680 to 1860.

“The Rise of Modern Mythology is a voice of reason in the contemporary maelstrom of international religious violence and American pluralism; more than any book I know, it exposes the roots of the Western appropriation of non-Western mythologies, from Lawrence of Arabia and Omar Khayyam to Tibetan Buddhism in Hollywood and Krishna Consciousness in airports. This is a book that we need now.” ―Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, The University of Chicago