num_pages: 152
description: Magic is a much-used term with a complex and controversial history. As a concept and a practice it has attracted the attention of theologians anthropologists psychologists sociologists artists and historians over the centuries. This Very Short Introduction explains why. Magic has been defined in terms of the false religions of others as an evolutionary stage in human thought a universal state of mind and a liberating expression of the imagination. For hundreds of millions of people today no matter their religious persuasion magic is a real force that helps them to overcome misfortune poverty and illness. Indeed with magic as relevant today as it ever was it raises questions about the meaning of human progress.
language: English
title: Magic: A Very Short Introduction
publisher: Oxford University Press