According to Glyn-Jones, the central dilemma of history is this: the dynamic that promotes economic prosperity arises largely from the conviction that the material world alone constitutes true 'reality'. Yet that self-same dynamic, developing into a critique of all belief in the supernatural as at best superflous, and at worst a damaging superstition, undermines the authority of moral standards and thus leads eventually to the destruction of the very security, prosperity and artistic achievement on which civilizations rest their claim to greatness. Focussing on dramatic entertainment as the barometer of social change, this book shows in vivid detail how the thesis worked itself out in four different civilizations, those of Greece, Rome and medieval Christendom and now in our own contemporary society.