Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

“> What is the book (or books) you’ve most often gifted to other people? Books by René Girard, definitely — both because he’s the one writer who has influenced me the most and because many people haven’t heard of him. Girard gives a sweeping view of the whole human experience on this planet — something captured in the title of his masterwork, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World — but it’s not just an academic philosophy. Once you learn about it, his view of imitation as the root of behavior is something you will see every day, not just in people around you but in yourself.

“An astonishing work of cultural criticism, this book is widely recognized as a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion, and psychoanalysis.