Overview: All writers and thinkers, and their works, are in a tradition that preceded them. In The Tree of Tradition, Nicholas Hagger sets out a way for all writers and thinkers to be more aware of the traditions and influences that have shaped their works in all subjects and disciplines in all civilizations, using short personal reflections on how influences shaped his own works as an example.

Each discipline has metaphysical and secular traditions, and Hagger’s A New Philosophy of Literature set out the fundamental theme of world literature as a perennial conflict between a Romantic individual quest for Reality, the One, and a classical condemnation of social follies and vices.

Hagger’s 60 Universalist works are innovatory in seeing the ultimate unity of the universe, of all disciplines and of humankind, and in reconciling Romanticism and Classicism within a unity he calls Baroque. A Universalist writer is influenced by many sub-traditions, and Hagger particularises the traditions and sub-traditions that have inspired or influenced his works in seven disciplines (mysticism, literature, philosophy and the sciences, history, comparative religion, international politics and statecraft, and world culture) and in the seven branches of literature in which he has written his works (poems and poetic epics, verse plays and masques, short stories, diaries, autobiographies, letters and his statement of the fundamental unity of world literature), which he symbolizes in a stag’s two seven-branched antlers.

This is an inspirational book that throws light on the traditions and influences behind all works in all disciplines and civilizations, and the 109 traditions and 84 influences behind Hagger’s Universalist works.

Verdict: As the author himself says, The Tree of Tradition came to me as Traditions and Influences when I was on a two-seek cruise round Ireland, after two intense days in the company of Shelley, Swift and Yeats.

The Tree of Tradition is actually the World Tree (also Tree of Imagination) whose forms include the Tree of Knowledge with roots in the underworld and Heaven, and the Tree of Life, which connects all living things. It is a cosmic tree in which all living things in the cosmos are linked. I set out the forms the Tree of Traditions takes.

The Tree of Tradition is also the World Tree of all civilizations, whose branch-like traditions include the stages living civilizations have passed through, and it is therefore also a tree of the future organization of the world.

As I showed in the The Secret American Destiny, the US within the North-American civilization is the youngest and best placed of the 14 living civilizations to create a future World State that can solve the world’s problems.

As for what I made of it, well, I’ve read most all Nicholas written down the years and although this one isn’t as in-depth, as large, as heavy as some of his others, it is none the less as engrossing with the pulled works.

Featuring the Tree of Tradition in a way that highlights some of its traditions and influences from the off, the book then openly reveals how they have shaped the works of Writer and Thinkers in all Civilizations. It is an engrossing read and one that I feel everyone with even the merest of interest in this, should go out and buy today.

About the Author - Nicholas Hagger is the author of more than 50 books that include a substantial literary output and innovatory works within history, philosophy, literature and international politics and statecraft. As a man of letters he has written over 2,000 poems, two poetic epics, five verse plays, 1,200 short stories, two travelogues and three masques. In 2016 he was awarded the Gusi Peace Prize for Literature, and in 2019 the BRICS silver medal for Vision for Future. He lives in Essex, UK.

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