Sign-In
Cart
American Odyssey: What an Ancient Story Reveals about Our Divided Souls
Hardcover
PhilosophyAncient GreeceColonial Period (1600-1775)
Publisher Price: $26.00
ISBN13: 9781967613328
Publisher: Creed & Culture
Published: Jul 21 2026
Pages: 198
Weight: 0.85
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.70 Depth: 8.60
Language: English
How the Odyssey illuminates the two sides of the American mind, from one of our most influential cultural commentators.
The Odyssey is among the oldest-known written works. Yet it is somehow profoundly contemporary. Its themes are inescapably human: the desire to strike out for new adventures; the aspiration to be more than human; the temptation to wallow in beastlike torpor; the impulse to exact vengeance; the possibility that mercy might bring a violent cycle to an end.
Surprisingly, as the celebrated political philosopher Patrick Deneen explains in this eye-opening book, the Odyssey is also the most American of ancient texts. Like Odysseus, Americans have two fundamental impulses: we are a people simultaneously animated by commitments to being at home and leaving home. Deneen shows us that the deep ambivalence at the heart of the Odyssey is also our own--as some of our greatest books and films attest, from Huckleberry Finn to The Wizard of Oz to Field of Dreams to It's a Wonderful Life.
The coincidence of the United States semiquincentennial and the release of the blockbuster film The Odyssey affords a remarkable opportunity to explore the deep similarities between the ancient Greek epic and the American character. With his characteristic insight, Deneen reveals how Americans' Western inheritance contains a paradox, and a set of tensions, that remain at the core of our divided souls.
Also in
Colonial Period (1600-1775)
Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History
Fisher, Linford D.
Hardcover
The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States
Silverman, David J.
Hardcover
The Treacherous World of the 16th Century & How the Pilgrims Escaped It: The Prequel to America's Freedom
Federer, William J.
Paperback
Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America
Shorto, Russell
Paperback
Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates
Dolin, Eric Jay
Paperback
Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America
Shorto, Russell
Hardcover
From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition.....
Maier, Pauline
Paperback
Empire and Frontier: Colonel Peter Schuyler and the Valiant Iroquois in King William's War: 1689-1701
Marquis, Samuel
Hardcover
America: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at War
Bennett, William J.
Paperback
Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father (Large Print Edition)
Stark, Peter
Paperback
Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials
Roach, Marilynne K.
Paperback
Heart of American Darkness: A Story of Murder and Revolution on the Early Frontier
Parkinson, Robert G.
Paperback
The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
Shorto, Russell
Paperback
Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me: Debunking the False Narratives Defining America's School Curricula
Reilly, Wilfred
Hardcover
The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim's Journey on the Great Wagon Road
Dodson, James
Hardcover
Miracle on the Mayflower: John Howland's Remarkable Rescue and Lasting Impact on America
Hogg, Cynthia Howard
Paperback
The Intellectual Origins of American Slavery: English Ideas in the Early Modern Atlantic World
Harpham, John Samuel
Hardcover
General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates
Captain Johnson, Charles
Paperback
This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving
Silverman, David J.
Paperback
Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier
Drury, Bob
Clavin, Tom
Paperback
American Colonies: The Settling of North America (the Penguin History of the United States, Volume 1)
Taylor, Alan
Paperback
Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766
Anderson, Fred
Paperback
The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke
Lawler, Andrew
Paperback
The Constitution of the United States (U.S. Heritage): With the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and Other Founding Documents with an I
Fathers, Founding
Washington, George
Hardcover
The Secret Founding of America: The Real Story of Freemasons, Puritans, & the Battle for the New World
Hagger, Nicholas
Paperback
Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America's Revolutionary Era
Bunn, Mike
Hardcover
The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675
Bailyn, Bernard
Paperback
Scots and Scotch Irish: Frontier Life in North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky
Hoefling, Larry J.
Paperback
The World Hunt: An Environmental History of the Commodification of Animals
Richards, John F.
Paperback
King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict
Schultz, Eric B.
Tougias, Michael J.
Paperback
The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials
Starkey, Marion L.
Paperback
Directory of Scots Banished to the American Plantations, 1650-1775. Second Edition (Revised)
Dobson, David
Paperback
The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion That Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest
Roberts, David
Paperback
The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation
Stuart, Nancy Rubin
Paperback
The First Emancipator: Slavery, Religion, and the Quiet Revolution of Robert Carter
Levy, Andrew
Paperback
By Flesh and Toil: How Sex, Race, and Labor Shaped the Early French Empire
Lamotte, Mélanie
Hardcover
A Stranger Among Saints: Stephen Hopkins, the Man Who Survived Jamestown and Saved Plymouth
Mack, Jonathan
Paperback
A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials - Witchcraft Hysteria and Justice in 17th Century Massachusetts
Matthews, Scott
Paperback
America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation
Davis, Kenneth C.
Paperback
Scars on the Land: An Environmental History of Slavery in the American South
Silkenat, David
Hardcover
Vignettes of Colonial Virginia: Remarkable Stories from the Founding of America
Tarter, Brent
Paperback
Braddock's Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution
Preston, David L.
Paperback
The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-By-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege
Roach, Marilynne K.
Paperback
Miracle on the Mayflower: John Howland's Remarkable Rescue and Lasting Impact on America
Hogg, Cynthia Howard
Hardcover
Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence (Illustrated): Updated with Index and 80 Rare, Historical Photos
Goodrich, Charles Augustus
Lewis, Thomas W.
Hardcover
God's Solution for America and the Nations of the World: This is a Spiritual Revolution!
Hertler, David Carl
Hallahan Hertler, Jean
Paperback
The History of South Carolina: Its European Discovery and Colonization, Battles with the Native Americans, the Revolutionary War of Independence, and
Simms, William Gilmore
Paperback
The Ancient House: Constructing Community in the Seventeenth-Century New York Borderlands
Kramer, Erin B.
Paperback
The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim's Journey on the Great Wagon Road
Dodson, James
Paperback
Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America
Eustace, Nicole
Paperback
Jane Colden's Botanic Manuscript: The Legacy of America's First Woman Botanist
Heckscher, Fenella Greig
Hardcover
The Deerfield Massacre: A Surprise Attack and the Fight for Survival in Early America
Swanson, James L.
Paperback
Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty
Barry, John M.
Paperback
A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery Under the Command of Captain Lewis and Captain Clarke of the Army of the United States [m
Gass, Patrick 1771-1870
Paperback
American History Bite-Sized: The Making of the USA in Over 150 Moments
Rattle, Alison
Vale, Allison
Hardcover
King George's War and the Thirty Year Peace: The Third Contest for North America
Laramie, Michael G.
Hardcover
U.S. History 101: Historic Events, Key People, Important Locations, and More!
Sears, Kathleen
Hardcover
Fort Niagara: The Key to the Inland Oceans and the French Movement to Dominate North America
Scott, Patricia Kay
Utley, William Edward
Paperback
Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America
Anderson, Virginia DeJohn
Paperback
Robert Love's Warnings: Searching for Strangers in Colonial Boston
Dayton, Cornelia H.
Salinger, Sharon V.
Paperback
An Infinity of Nations: How the Native New World Shaped Early North America
Witgen, Michael
Paperback
A Canoe Named Klmin: Sixth-, Seventh-, Eighth-, and Ninth-Generation Family Members of Captain William Clark Right a Wrong
Pearlmutter, Eve
Holton, Carlota Hermann
Robinson, Sam
Hardcover
Forest Diplomacy: Cultures in Conflict on the Pennsylvania Frontier, 1757
Proctor, Nicolas W.
Paperback
The Atlantic Republic of Letters: Knowledge and Colonialism in the Age of Franklin
Pirillo, Diego
Hardcover
Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England
Hardesty, Jared Ross
Paperback
The Colonial Tavern: A Glimpse of New England Town Life - a Social History of America's Bars in the 1600s and 1700s
Field, Edward
Paperback
War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier
Ross, John F.
Paperback
Revolution by Fire: New York's Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741, a Graphic Novel
Rediker, Marcus
Lester, David
Paperback
In God I Trust: Making Our National Motto My Personal Declaration
Teichert, John Dragon
Wells, Brad
Paperback
Rum Punch and Revolution: Taverngoing and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia
Thompson, Peter
Paperback
American History: Celebrating 250 Years of Hidden Stories, Forgotten Heroes, and the Nation They Built
Alive, History Brought
Hardcover
White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery and Vengeneance in Colonial America
Brumwell, Stephen
Paperback
The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation
Calloway, Colin G.
Paperback
Founding Faith: How Our Founding Fathers Forged a Radical New Approach to Religious Liberty
Waldman, Steven
Paperback
A genealogical dictionary of the first settlers of New England, Volume 1: Surnames A-C
Savage, James
Paperback
God, War, and Providence: The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians Against the Puritans of New England
Warren, James A.
Paperback
Massacre on the Merrimack: Hannah Duston's Captivity and Revenge in Colonial America
Atkinson, Jay
Paperback
The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America
Weidensaul, Scott
Hardcover
George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation (Chump Change Edition)
Washington, George
Paperback