Heroic Heroes

DIVBased on a series of lectures delivered in 1840, Thomas Carlyle’s On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History considers the creation of heroes and the ways they exert heroic leadership. From the divine and prophetic (Odin and Muhammad) to the poetic (Dante and Shakespeare) to the religious (Luther and Knox) to the political (Cromwell and Napoleon), Carlyle investigates the mysterious qualities that elevate humans to cultural significance. By situating the text in the context of six essays by distinguished scholars that reevaluate both Carlyle’s work and his ideas, David Sorensen and Brent Kinser argue that Carlyle's concept of heroism stresses the hero’s spiritual dimension. In Carlyle’s engagement with various heroic personalities, he dislodges religiosity from religion, myth from history, and truth from “quackery” as he describes the wondrous ways in which these “flowing light-fountains” unlock the heroic potential of ordinary human beings. /div

This volume explores the relationship of hero to celebrity and the changing role of the hero in American culture. It establishes that the nature of hero and its function in society is a communication phenomenon, which has been and is being altered by the rapid advance of electronic media.

Who was the greatest hero of Ancient Greece? Who killed the most monsters? Who rescued the most damsels in distress? Who was the coolest dude in sandals? Listen to the heroes themselves as they tell the stories of their adventures and decide for yourself who was the most HEROIC HERO!

The Legacy of Heroes is a Fantasy Role Playing Game with a singular focus: imagination. The Legacy of Heroes Player's Guide offers everything you need to bring the myriad characters from movies, literature, mythology and anything else you can imagine to life on the page before you. This book contains 11 races, 11 classes, 40 heroic arcs and all the spells, styles, equipment, magic items and more you need for your own brave heroes to move from character to legend. The Legacy of Heroes exciting Heroic Talent and Heroic Moment systems empower the players to create truly memorable role-playing experiences like never before. This book facilitates that collaboration by giving you, the player, the tools you need for the stories you imagine in an efficient, simple, and familiar system based on the OGL license. The only question is, are you ready for your own legacy? Visit www.thelegacyofheroes.com for support, downloads and more!

During World War II, the British military dropped several dozen parachutists from Palestine, including three women, behind enemy lines in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. These young soldiers, most of whom had fled Europe only a few years earlier, faced a double challenge: their British mission was to find pilots who had jettisoned over enemy territory and assist them in returning to Allied-occupied lands; their Zionist mission was to contact Jewish communities, assist them in rebuilding the local Zionist movement, and, when necessary, help their members escape from the Nazis. Seven of the parachutists lost their lives in this effort. In Perfect Heroes, an expanded and updated English adaptation of her Hebrew book Giborim le-mofet, Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz recounts the history of these parachutists' wartime escapades and also analyzes the ways that various segments of Israeli society—military, political, legal, educational, youth, literary, and artistic—used the parachutists' story over the course of fifty years to build a nationalist narrative and to promote their own partisan and, at times, contradictory agendas. Baumel-Schwartz also offers broader comparative discussions of how individuals were commemorated as WWII heroes and heroines in many countries, in service of national mythologizing and collective memory.