The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History

An amazing, fascinating, intellectually stimulating book on a subject too often the province of cranks, fanatics, or frauds--the Devil himself. Russell, a California history professor, has written several volumes on Lucifer, and this is the most far-ranging. An in-depth study that traces the history of the Devil from his shadowy origins in the desert wastes of the Middle East and of course even further back, in Africa; follows him through Judaism and early Christianity to the Middle Ages, up through the Reformation and Age of Enlightenment, right through to the Holocaust and the post-modern world. Russell explores theology, folklore, literature, and history to piece together this ultimate symbol of evil.