40,000 years of magic

★A fascinating history of magic & novel global history, every reader who is interested in archaeology, history, and human civilization must read it carefully;

★A very entertaining collection of mysterious culture, including 192 exquisite illustrations, 19 detailed maps, and 15 historical tables, to satisfy all your curiosity about the field of magic.

★Editor's recommendation

Selected as the best book of the year by the British "Daily Telegraph"

Shortlisted for the Insights Trends Book Award

Shortlisted for the 2021 PEN Hessel-Tiltman History Prize

The judges of the 2021 PEN Hessel-Tiltman History Prize praised:

"Chris Goldsden has created the Holy Grail, pouring disparate narratives of magic, science, witchcraft and religion into an intellectual crucible and smelting them into a bold and original history of ideas. A tome with implications beyond its own discipline to inspire new thinking.”

Simon Montefiore, author of "Three Thousand Years of Jerusalem", recommends: "Excellent, charming, unprecedented".

★Introduction

The author of this book, Gosden, professor of European archeology at Oxford University, tells us a magical story of more than 40,000 years: from the Ice Age to today's unknown corners, across all continents of the world, from the Mongolian grassland to the Mesopotamia, From ancient Egypt to the magnificent palaces of London and Paris, we will meet priests, diviners, shamans, wizards, alchemists and other characters, and follow them on a wonderful journey. In the process, Gosden reveals to us that magic occupies a far more important place in human society than people imagined.

The triple helix of magic, religion, and science constructs human civilization, and different models of the relationship between man and the world are hidden in it. In religion, humans enter into a relationship with one or more deities who rule the world. Science attempts to establish a distant relationship with the world that ultimately allows us to see and understand the world in abstract terms. Magic emphasizes our kinship with other living beings, the earth and the sky. Through magic, we are able to form a deeply engaged relationship with the world, which also contains a series of moral concerns at its core. We need to examine the entanglement of magic, religion, and science in order to gain a new perspective on global history.

★Celebrity recommendation

◎Chris Goldsden brilliantly reveals the status of magic in human society with his magical brushstrokes, spanning the history from the Ice Age to the present, and covering all continents inhabited by humans. He also shows what kind of everyday practice magic is, and how it connects the world of the dead with the world of the living.

--David Aboulafia, author of The Great Sea: A History of Humanity in the Mediterranean

◎ Impressive, a must-read book. Gosden deftly presents the history of magic from a global perspective, enabling readers to make fascinating connections between cultural traditions in different places and eras.

--Violet Moller, author of Tinder: How the First Fruits of Human Civilization Lived Across Seven Cities

◎"Being human means connecting." Chris Goldsden shows how magic explores the relationship between humans and the universe in a respectful way that is different from religion or science. This is a massive book about the centrality of magic to many cultures, ancient and modern.

--John Barton, author of The History of the Bible: The Book and What It Believes

◎This is more than a work of archeology and history: as we witness the growth of extreme cults and the inflammatory myths of a post-truth age, it is increasingly relevant for our own time.

--Frances Pryor, author of The Birth of Modern Britain

★Media recommendation

◎Ingeniously conceived and wide-ranging topics...Gosden's detailed description provides many interesting observations about early human society. Readers with a keen interest in human belief systems will be intrigued.

-- "Publishers Weekly"

◎ Instructive...Given the current climate crisis, and inspired by the discovery of quantum physics, Gosden further makes a compelling case for returning to the interconnected view of most magical traditions...This is a fascinating exploration of magic in the human imagination.

—Library Journal

◎Gosden is like a wise man standing on the top of a mountain, advising us with wisdom that a "new magic" is needed in the 21st century to deal with the disasters brought about by climate change.

- "Daily Mail"

◎ Erudite, accessible, all-encompassing...not a single page is unattractive...an amazing and interesting book.

——The Scotsman