Very Good - We have carefully checked this item for you. Very Good Condition: 'To us' this means the book will be in excellent used condition. It will show almost no signs of wear (or very little). All pages will be intact and fully readable. The dust jacket will be included if it is meant to have one. No writing on any pages or scribbles. Ideal for collectors who want items in all-round great condition!

Review I regard his book as crucial reading for anyone interested in the dynamics of society and culture. He presents the best case I have seen for the promacy of social order.--Victor TurnerHis fascinating and ambitious book provides a fully developed theory of violence as the 'heart and secret soul' of the sacred. Girard's fertile, combative mind links myth to prophetic writing, primitive religions to classical tragedy.--Victor Brombert "Chronicle of Higher Education"This brilliant study of human evil, first published in France to critical acclaim, demands comparison with Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death and Escape from Evil, as well as with Eli Sagan's Cannibalism: Human Aggression and Cultural Form. . . . This is a major study in the anthropology of religion, Greek literature, and the human psyche-- "Choice" Product Description His fascinating and ambitious book provides a fully developed theory of violence as the 'heart and secret soul' of the sacred. Girard's fertile, combative mind links myth to prophetic writing, primitive religions to classical tragedy. About the Author René Girard is a Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French Language, Literature and Civilization at Stanford University. Two of his books, Deceit, Desire, and the Novel, which was also translated by Yvonne Freccero, and Violence and the Sacred, are available from Johns Hopkins University Press.