Bobrick The Fated Sky

Bobrick, Benson. The Fated Sky : Astrology in History. Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Brand New Book, Hardcover with Dust Jacket, clean, tight, unmarked ; 1.23 x 9.52 x 6.4 Inches; 384 pages; <P><I><B>In a horoscope he cast in 1647 for Charles I, William Lilly, a noted English astrologer, made the following judgment: "Luna is with Antares, a violent fixed star, which is said to denote violent death, and Mars is approaching Caput Algol, which is said to denote beheading." Two years later the king's head fell on the block. "Astrology must be right," wrote the American astrologer Evangeline Adams, a claimed descendant of President John Quincy Adams, in a challenge to skeptics in 1929. "There can be no appeal from the Infinite."</B></I> <P><I>The Fated Sky</I> explores both the history of astrology and the controversial subject of its influence in history. It is the first serious book to fully engage astrology in this way.<P>Astrology is the oldest of the occult sciences. It is also the origin of science itself. Astronomy, mathematics, and other disciplines arose in part to make possible the calculations necessary in casting horoscopes. For five thousand years, from the ancient Near East to the modern world, the influence of the stars has been viewed as shaping the course and destiny of human affairs. According to recent polls, at least 30 percent of the American public believes in astrology, though, as Bobrick reveals, modern astrology is also utterly different from the doctrine of the stars that won the respect and allegiance of the greatest thinkers, scientists, and writers -- Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Arab, and Persian -- of an earlier day. Statesmen, popes, and kings once embraced it, and no less a figure than St. Thomas Aquinas, the medieval theologian, thought it not incompatible with Christian faith. There are some two hundred astrological allusions in Shakespeare's plays, and not one of their astrological predictions goes unfulfilled. The great astronomers of the scientific revolution -- Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler -- were adherents. Isaac Newton's appetite for mathematics was first whetted by an astrological text. In more recent times, prominent figures such as Churchill, de Gaulle, and Reagan have consulted astrologers and sometimes heeded their advice. Today universities as diverse as Oxford in England and the University of Zaragoza in Spain offer courses in the subject, fulfilling Carl Jung's prediction decades ago that astrology would again become the subject of serious discourse. <P>Whether astrology actually has the powers that have been ascribed to it is, of course, open to debate. But there is no doubt that it maintains an unshakeable hold on the human mind. In <I>The Fated Sky,</I> Benson Bobrick has written an absolutely captivating and comprehensive account of this engrossing subject and its enduring influence on history and the history of ideas.<P>. 0743224825.

Hardcover, New in New dust jacket.

[SW: Astrology History,]

Details

Bobrick, Benson: The Fated Sky Astrology in History, Simon & Schuster 2006
0743268954

1 x 9.1 x 6.1 Inches; 384 pages; From ancient times to the present day, astrology has captured the imagination -- is it possible that human fate is influenced by the stars? Astrologers throughout the ages have advised the powerful, from popes to presidents to royalty, and their influence can be seen as a hidden history behind the great events of the past. In <I>The Fated Sky,</i> historian Benson Bobrick writes the first serious history of astrology and takes a fascinating look at its origins and impact on human events.<P><P>Astrology is the origin of science itself, as astronomy, mathematics, and other disciplines arose in part to make possible the calculations necessary in casting horoscopes. In earlier times, it was a science that won the respect and allegiance of the greatest thinkers and rulers of the ancient world, and eventually claimed adherents among the great astronomers of the scientific revolution -- Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton among them. Statesmen such as Churchill and de Gaulle consulted astrologers, and St. Thomas Aquinas thought astrology not incompatible with Christian doctrine. It is even said the Incas submitted to the Spanish conquistadors without a fight because their arrival coincided with an astrological prophecy. And astrology permeates our cultural consciousness, from references in the Bible and Shakespeare to expressions such as "ill-starred" or "lucky stars."<P><P>Rich in historical anecdote and astrological lore, <I>The Fated Sky</i> shows us that while the true power of astrology may be open to debate, the belief in its power has been -- and continues to be -- an enduring and intriguing influence on history and the history of ideas.<P><P>

Details

Bobrick, Benson. The Fated Sky: Astrology in History. Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Brand New, Hardcover with dust jacket, clean, tight, unmarked; DJ shows some edge wear, otherwise in excellent condition. ; 1.23 x 9.52 x 6.4 Inches; In this lively work, historian Bobrick (Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired) takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic journey through the history of the reading of the stars. As he shows, from astrology's birth 6,000 years ago in Babylonia to the Reagan White House, the stars have been studied, interpreted and followed: they drove Christopher Columbus to America, says Bobrick, and their study led to the sciences of astronomy and chemistry. While he gives a nod to the eastern mystics who originated astrology, Bobrick mostly traces the many threads of astrology as they weave through Western thought. Copernicus, Isaac Newton and even Martin Luther studied the astrology texts of their day, using them not only for personal guidance but as a tool in their own remarkable work. Attacked by establishment churches and debunked and scoffed at by contemporary science, astrology has stayed with us and flourishes. Not only are 40 million Americans ravenous consumers of astrology and dedicated followers of horoscopes, but, Bobrick says, astrology is reappearing in academe. With great passion and clarity, Bobrick has written the perfect thinking reader's companion to the daily horoscope. 16 pages of illus. Not seen by PW. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.. 0743224825.

Paperback, New in Very Good+ dust jacket.

[SW: Astrology Chemistry Stars Horoscope History,]

Details

Benson Bobrick: The Fated Sky: Astrology in History, New York Simon & Schuster 2005
ISBN: 0743224825 Fine

A study of belief in horoscopes and their influence on the history of ideas and the human mind, demonstrating astrology's part in world history and the development of science. 1st Edition Very Good Hard Cover 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall

Details