Accidental Gods
On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine

Deification has been defiance: from the depths of abjection, creating gods has been a way to imagine alternative political futures, wrest back sovereignty, and catch power.--------------------------------------Gods are born ex-nihilo and out of lotuses, from the white blood of the sea-foam, o......more

Fails to live up to what could have been an interesting book on the history of people worshiped as gods, instead being kind of a slog through matter at least as much political and screed-y as religious. In fact, a book half this size that was more straightforward and stayed on topic and had a more c......more

(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley) Anna Della Subin's first published work is centered around a topic that I personally have never seen explored in such focus and detail before - unintentionally deified men. A few of these were figures that I was broadly fam......more

Lacks a conciseness, which when paired with its repetitiveness, makes it feel like a never-ending slog through what should be interesting material. Easily could have been half the size and conveyed the same points. One of my biggest peeves is when authors provide unnecessary details about minor char......more

An absolutely fascinating book that makes sense of the seemingly inexplicable deification of certain figures in modern history. Spoiler alert: colonialism is mostly to blame......more