Why have The Lord of The Rings, Star Wars, the Harry Potter stories, and other tales of heroic fantasy, been so phenomenally successful in the present apparently cynical and disillusioned age? Colebatch argues that the popularity of these works shows the real health of our culture to be more robust than we sometimes believe, and confirms the centrality of "traditional" values which "progressive" thinkers have often disparaged or overlooked. In advancing this argument, the author also seeks to entertain the many readers who love these works, and to open to them some new vistas of understanding.