By Riane Eisler
The Chalice and the Blade tells a new story of our cultural origins. It shows that war and the “war of the sexes” are neither divinely nor biologically ordained. And it provides verification that a better future is possible — and is in fact firmly rooted in the haunting drama of what actually happened in our past.
This international bestseller — now in 27 foreign editions, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, and most European languages — tells a fascinating new story of our past, present, and the possibilities for our future. Weaving together evidence from art, archeology, religion, social science, history, and many other fields of inquiry into new patterns that more accurately fit the best available data, it shows that war and the “war of the sexes” are neither divinely nor biologically ordained. It provides verification that a better future is possible — and is in fact firmly rooted in the haunting drama of what actually happened in our past.
Riane Eisler’s The Chalice & the Blade: Our History, Our Future has sold over 500,000 copies and has been translated into 26 languages including Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, German, Japanese, Korean, Urdu, Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Finnish, Danish, Czech, Dutch, Swedish, and Norwegian, with a British edition in Australia, India, and South Africa.
The book has influenced popular thinking, was called “the greatest murder mystery of all times,” and inspired Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code with its challenge to conventional religious dogmas.
It has been hailed as a major cultural contribution. For example, anthropologist Ashley Montagu called it “the most important book since Darwin’s Origin of Species” and novelist Isabel Allende wrote, “The Chalice & the Blade is one of those magnificent key books that can transform us.”
It has influenced other scholars. For example, in China, scholars applied the cultural transformation theory introduced in The Chalice & the Blade and found that (as in the West) an earlier partnership-oriented culture once flourished. Their book, The Chalice & the Blade in Chinese Culture, was published in 1995 by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in English and Chinese.
Reviews & Accolades
“The Chalice and The Blade may be the most significant work published in all our lifetimes. Read The Chalice and The Blade . . . it may make the future possible.”– LA Weekly
“To read Eisler is to glimpse new vistas of human possibilities.”– New Woman
“As important, perhaps more important, than the unearthing of Troy or the deciphering of cuneiform.”—Bruce Wilshire, Professor of philosophy, Rutgers University
• Riane Eisler’s The Chalice & the Blade: Our History, Our Future has sold over 500,000 copies and has been translated into 26 languages including Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, German, Japanese, Korean, Urdu, Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Finnish, Danish, Czech, Dutch, Swedish, and Norwegian, with a British edition in Australia, India, and South Africa.
• The book has influenced popular thinking, was called “the greatest murder mystery of all times,” and inspired Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code with its challenge to conventional religious dogmas.
• It has been hailed as a major cultural contribution. For example, anthropologist Ashley Montagu called it “the most important book since Darwin’s Origin of Species” and novelist Isabel Allende wrote, “The Chalice & the Blade is one of those magnificent key books that can transform us.”
• It has led to numerous conferences and events; for instance, inspired by the partnership model introduced in The Chalice & the Blade, the first International Partnership Conference, attended by 500 people from 40 nations, was hosted by the former First Lady of Greece on the Mediterranean island of Crete.
• It has influenced other scholars. For example, in China, scholars applied the cultural transformation theory introduced in The Chalice & the Blade and found that (as in the West) an earlier partnership-oriented culture once flourished. Their book, The Chalice & the Blade in Chinese Culture, was published in 1995 by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in English and Chinese.
• Riane Eisler has been invited to speak by the United Nations General Assembly, the U.S Department of State, and heads of state; for example, the former President of the German Parliament, Professor Rita Süssmuth and the former President of in the Czech Republic, Vaclav Have, and has given over 400 other presentations at conferences, universities, corporations, and governmental and nongovernmental agencies.
• The book has influenced music, television, and other forms of entertainment – the ABC television series MacGyver did a two-hour episode based on information about prehistoric partnership-oriented societies described in The Chalice & The Blade.
• Scores of books in fields from sociology, psychology, business management, human rights, and public affairs to archaeology, mythology, religion and art have been influenced by The Chalice & the Blade, and many more feature contributions by Eisler.
• Thousands of women and men report The Chalice & the Blade changed their lives, the Center for Partnership Studies was founded to help bring the partnership model to families, schools, businesses, communities, and society at large, and Partnership Centers sprang up nationally and internationally.
• Churches and other religious organizations, therapists, and educators have used and recommended The Chalice & the Blade and it has inspired artists and musicians.
• High school teachers and university professors have assigned The Chalice & the Blade to their classes and it has inspired Masters and Doctoral dissertations.
• Courses at universities are based on Eisler’s partnership model and cultural transformation theory.
• Dr. Eisler was honored as the only woman among twenty great thinkers including Vico, Hegel, Spengler, Adam Smith, Marx, and Toynbee featured in Macrohistory and Macrohistorians, in recognition of the lasting importance of her work.
• Eisler’s later books, Sacred Pleasure, Tomorrow’s Children, The Power of Partnership, The Partnership Way, and The Real Wealth of Nations apply the partnership model introduced in The Chalice & the Blade to spirituality, sexuality, economics, the environment, education, and day-to-day life.
• Eisler’s research finding of a connection between the status of women and economic development, human rights, and levels of national and international violence was empirically verified in the study based on data from 89 nations, Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life.
• Eisler teaches graduate studies in partnership at the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) and her Cultural Transformation online courses through the Center for Partnership Studies.
• Eisler has been interviewed for TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and other media about her work.
• Businesses, including multinational corporations where Eisler has been invited to keynote conferences and as a consultant, have profited by using Eisler’s partnership model.
Amazon Smile Program
If you shop online at Amazon, please go through AmazonSmile, their charitable rewards program to give 0.5% of all eligible purchases to CPS. It’s quick and easy. All you have to do is:
- Go to smile.amazon.com. Set this as a bookmark and always enter Amazon through this address. This is important, as purchases made through the regular Amazon site are not calculated toward the charity disbursements.
- The first time that you go to the site, you will be asked to fill in the organization that you want to benefit from your purchases. Type in the Center for Partnership Studies (it should also appear in the dropdown selections).
- After that, just do your ordering as you normally do.
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