This work explains the origins of the familiar and the unfamiliar in everyday speech and literature, including the colloquial and the proverbial. It embraces archaeology, history, religion, the arts, science, mythology and characters from fiction.

For many years now there has been an upsurge in revelation stories and alternative viewpoints on man's history. People such as Graham Hancock and Lawrence Gardner have brought to light many new ideas and many new problems. Now there is a new theory which is all-encompassing and clearly brings into focus a more sinister reason behind the emergence of civilisation. In his theory on Atlantis Graham Hancock is receiving much admiration and academic acclaim. Standard academic thought is more towards the spontaneous eruption of civilisation across the globe, with little or no explanation of why there are so many similarities between the cultures. Now, Philip Gardiner, in his new book THE SHINING ONES is set to turn even this upon its head. The theory is so simple that it begs the question, why has it not been thought of before? The reason for universal similarity of architecture, language, art, travel and religious belief is quite simply an ancient and secret religious brotherhood who have hidden themselves deep within the symbols, ciphers and codes of our ancient texts for hundreds of years. They held a secret knowledge and power base which spread with them across the globe. The very title that they have given themselves is hidden within the standard text and religious books we use every day -- The Shining Ones. Put like this, the whole thing can sound like an X-Files conspiracy theory. However the author has invested huge amounts of time and energy checking, researching and seeking the advice of academics. Now the theory is attracting the attention of historians who can see that the patterns are as subtle as this author proposes. The fact is, this theory does explain away all the problems with dating and variations that people such as Hancock have come up against. Many academics and especially Egyptologists are now turning to this way of thinking and with Gardiners spirit and broad knowledge in history and language the history of the ancients and the secrets that they hold are becoming more clear. There are of course dissenters. The author has been accosted for his standpoint and there are still those hardened academics and even non-academics who refuse to even listen. However, there is a major TV documentary in pre-production stages and with interviews planned across the nation on radio and TV the message may soon be accepted as a credible theory.

This book focuses on India’s anti-colonial politics which Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) brought into the mainstream of nationalist thinking. It browses through the entire corpus of Tagore’s writings in the genres of poetry, fiction, and essays, to glean both used and hitherto unused/un-translated writings that illumine Tagore’s gender consciousness and (proto)feminist thought and empathy, presenting it in a wholly new light. It teases out Tagore’s original views on India’s industrial-capitalist development and his views on the roles of applied scientists and engineers in it to highlight his critique of the nature of science teaching in colonial India. The volume also delineates Tagore’s Upanişadic ecologism that creatively evoked anticolonialism and patriotism. Lucid and topical, the book will be indispensable for students and researchers in the fields of comparative literature, history, political science, international relations, and sociology at all levels, and anybody interested in literary criticism and cultural studies.

Using a cultural approach to classical myths, this book examines how they affect psychoanalytic theory, historical experience, elite culture, popular culture, and everyday life. Berger explores diverse topics such as the Oedipus Myth, James Bond, Star Wars, and fairy tales.