Böcker av Norman Cohn

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.

The Middle Ages inherited from Antiquity a tradition of prophesy and gave it fresh and exuberant life. Drawing on a huge variety of contemporary sources, this unique and compelling book tells the story of those Millenarian fanaticisms of the Middle Ages and points to their persistence in the modern world.

This is a history of the irrational need to imagine witches and an investigation of how those fantasies made the persecutions of the Middle Ages possible.