Mythomania: Tales of Our Times, from Apple to Isis

Our culture proclaims its respect for scientific reason, yet we seem no less bedazzled and bedeviled by myth than our remote ancestors. Now, sixty years after Roland Barthes first explored the mythological underpinnings of 1950s consumerism in his seminal Mythologies, the pre-eminent cultural critic Peter Conrad takes up the challenge of tracing myths into the 21st century. From Queen Elizabeth II to Caitlyn Jenner, from Tyrannosaurs Rex to Donald Trump, Conrad's exhilarating book surveys the age-old wisdom behind the absurdities of popular culture in his formidably astute but always entertaining style.