Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140280 in Books
• Published on: 1993-06-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 414 pages

Synopsis
The Middle Ages inherited from Antiquity a tradition of prophesy which, during those centuries took on fresh and exuberant vitality. This tradition foretold a millennium - in which the world would be inhabited by people at once perfectly good and perfectly happy. Humanity would enjoy a new paradise on earth, free of suffering and sin. Generation after generation was seized, at least intermittently, by a tense expectation of some sudden, miraculous event in which the world would be utterly transformed. Often these expectations become emmeshed with social unrest - with the desire of the poor to improve their material conditions. And when that happened movements were apt to arise which not only send tremors through the massive structure of medieval society but which also bear a startling resemblance to the great totalitaian movements of today. Drawing on a variety of contemporary resources, this book tells the story of those millennarian fanaticism of the Middle Ages and points to their persistence in the modern world.

From the Publisher
'Great learning and an admirably lively style-Professor Cohn's work throws a flood of light into unexplored corners-A most stimulating book.' Christopher Hill

About the Author
Norman Cohn was born in London in 1915 and educated at Gresham's School and Christ Church, Oxford. Scholar and research scholar at Christ Church between 1933 and 1939, after the war he taught in universities in England, Scotland, Ireland, America and Canada. In 1966 he became a Professorial Fellow in the University of Sussex and director of an international research project on the preconditions for persecutions and genocides. From 1973 to 1980 he was Astor-Wolfson Professor at Sussex and is now Professor Emeritus. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the author of Warrant for Genocide and Europe's Inner Demons (also in Pimlico).

Customer Reviews

Insanity and insurgency in the Dark Ages
I have a special place in my heart for books which combine the utmost intellectual rigour in their research and method, with the most off the wall subject matter imaginable. Perhaps it is the contrast between form and content, perhaps it is the breadth and depth of the conclusions reached by the microscopic examination of insanity.

Whatever the reason, Pursuit of the Millenium is brilliant example of the kind. I suppose you can tell that a book has reached a certain stature when it is referenced in later classics, and that the book must be especially wonderful of its kind if it attains this status despite pertaining largely to the arcane matter of medieval religious sectarianism. If this is true, then the reference to Cohn's opus in On Chesil Beech by Ian McEwan (in which principle male character is reading the book) is some sort of validation - especially given McEwan's predilection for using his novels to drop unsubtle hints about the sort of activities he considers culturally worthwhile.

The book is a succession of remarkable stories, interlaced with the development of the ideas which informed each instance of revolutionary eschatology. Similar motifs and patterns crop up again and again with such surprising reguality over periods of centuries that it is hard not to think that the commonalities must point to some sort of underlying human or structural bias. What it is though, is hard to say. Because it deals with revolutionary movements in the dark ages, it is also a fascinating comparative text for anyone interested in the revolutionary and social movements of the recent past - though Cohn does arguably lay that on a little thick at times.

No real prior knowledge of the subject is necessary to read the book, though I personally needed to make occasional recourse to Wikipedia to remind me of what some theological terms mean.

This, in case you haven't noticed, is a glowing review. Read this book!

A must read - honestly!
Many would not expect a book on medieval religion to be 'unputdownable', but this really is a riveting read. Professor Cohn introduces us to a lost world of heretics and heroes, and the revolutions and massacres they inspired. Chillingly the crazed theologies he describes are far from dead; some have mutated into secular versions like Nazism and Communism, some appear to have been rediscovered by modern religious extremists; David Koresh would not be out of place in this book.