Organizing data from cultures the world over, Eliade lays out the basic patterns of initiation: group puberty rites, entrance into secret cults, shamanic instructions, individual visions, and heroic rites of passage.

    This celebrated account of the decipherment of Linear B in the 1950s by Michael Ventris was written by his close collaborator in the momentuous discovery. In revealing the secrets of Linear B it offers a valuable survey of late pre-Hellenic archaeology, uncovering fascinating details of the religious and economic history of an ancient civilization.

    Originally published in 1941, his unprecedented study of black history and culture recovered a rich African heritage in religious and secular life, the language and arts of the Americas.

    At the heart of the account is the figure of Charles Darwin, his career, his creative achievements, and his impact on the Victorian world; but the story neither begins nor ends with him. Dr. Eiseley traces the achievements and discoveries of men in many fields of science who paved the way for Darwin, as well as an extensive discussion of the ways in which Darwin's work has been challenged, improved upon, and occasionally refuted during the past hundred years.