The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages / Edition 1

by Norman Cohn

Overview

The Middle Ages inherited from antiquity a tradition of prophecy and gave it new life. This tradition foretold a millennium in which humanity would enjoy a new paradise on earth, free from suffering and sin. This is the story of those millenarian fanaticisms, and points to their persistence in the modern era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195004564
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/15/1970
Series:	Galaxy Books
Edition description:	REVISED
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	238,952
Product dimensions:	8.52(w) x 5.54(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

Norman Cohn held the Astor-Wolfson Chair at the University of Sussex until his retirement in 1980. He is the author of Warrant for Genocide, for which he received the Anisfield Wolf Award in Race Relations.

Editorial Reviews

"Cohn uncovers interesting historical connections between millennial ideas and their use in furthering revolutionary movements started by the engine of social unrest."—The Catholic World

"Cohn's book is even more relevant today. He has added a conclusion relating [these movements in medieval Europe] to the contemporary scene....The mirage of a secularized millennium now appeals, he considers, both to the 'disoriented and desperate' in underdeveloped countries, and to an equally disoriented minority on the fringes of the social democratic state."—Times Literary Supplement

"A work of the first water...of great originality and power."—Sir Isaiah Berlin, Twentieth Century

"As valuable as it is interesting...full of historical facts which are passed over in silence in most histories."—Bertrand Russell

"Now we can understand the origins of twentieth century idiologies."—Dr. Wayne Allen, Delta State University

From the Publisher