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Caliban and the Witch

Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation

Silvia Federici author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd

Published:29th Jul '21

Should be back in stock very soon

Caliban and the Witch cover

'A groundbreaking work . . . Federici has become a crucial figurefor . . .a new generation of feminists' Rachel Kushner, author of The Mars Room

A cult classic since its publication in the early years of this century, Caliban and the Witch is Silvia Federici's history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages through the European witch-hunts, the rise of scientific rationalism and the colonisation of the Americas, it gives a panoramic account of the often horrific violence with which the unruly human material of pre-capitalist societies was transformed into a set of predictable and controllable mechanisms. It Is a study of indigenous traditions crushed, of the enclosure of women's reproductive powers within the nuclear family, and of how our modern world was forged in blood.


'Rewarding . . . allows us to better understand the intimate relationship between modern patriarchy, the rise of the nation state and the transition from feudalism to capitalism' Guardian

Rewarding . . . allows us to better understand the intimate relationship between modern patriarchy, the rise of the nation state and the transition from feudalism to capitalism * Guardian *
A groundbreaking work . . . Federici has become a crucial figurefor young Marxists, political theorists, and a new generation of feminists . . . a true radical who has lived by her political commitments, not just to women but against all forms of exploitation -- Rachel Kushner, author of The Mars Room
It is both a passionate work of memory recoveredand a hammer of humanity's agenda -- Peter Linebaugh, author of The London Hanged

ISBN: 9780241532539

Dimensions: 197mm x 129mm x 23mm

Weight: 296g

400 pages