The Golden Bough (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): A Study in Magic and Religion

A work that echoes from Freud to Apocalypse Now, this sweeping, controversial, and still influential synthesis of human history is based on the author’s pioneering studies of mythology and religion. Frazer proposes that civilization began by investing in the theories of primitive magic, then progressing through religion, and ending with a belief in the scientific. He finds parallels between Christianity and earlier myths, cults, and rites.