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Matthew Restall and Amara Solari.
2012 and the End of the World: The Western Roots of the Maya Apocalypse.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield.
Publication date: January 2011.
Page count: 160pp.
Publisher's recommended price
Hardback ISBN 9781442206090, $16.95
Description:
Did the Maya really predict that the world would end in December of 2012? If not, how and why has 2012 millenarianism gained such popular appeal? In this deeply knowledgeable book, two leading historians of the Maya answer these questions in a succinct, readable, and accessible style. Matthew Restall and Amara Solari introduce, explain, and ultimately demystify the 2012 phenomenon. They begin by briefly examining the evidence for the prediction of the world's end in ancient Maya texts and images, analyzing precisely what Maya priests did and did not prophesize. The authors then convincingly show how 2012 millenarianism has roots far in time and place from Maya cultural traditions, but in those of medieval and Early Modern Western Europe. Revelatory and myth-busting, while remaining firmly grounded in historical fact, this fascinating book will be essential reading as the countdown to December 21, 2012, begins.
"Falsehoods are more powerful than facts. Matthew Restall and Amara Solari's ingenious reconstruction of an amazing story - how Maya mathematics morphed into modern millenarianism - tells us a lot about the Maya. Their book tells us even more about ourselves: how and why, with every emotion from solemnity to derision, we respond to prophets who claim to foresee the end of time. Witty, scholarly, insightful, and fast-paced - this is the thinking person's guide to the next pop-apocalypse." - Felipe Fernández-Armesto, University of Notre Dame.
Contents:
Introduction: You Really Can Survive.
The History of the End of the World: The Maya Prediction.
They Deserve Better: The Maya Evidence.
God Is Angry: The Millenarian Mother Lode.
The Moctezuma Factor: The End of the World Comes to Mexico.
Apocalypto: The Millennium Comes to the Maya.
We Are Almost There: Why People Believe.
Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading.