Voodoo Vibes

Caliban and the Witch is a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch-hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the battle against the rebel body and the conflict between body and mind are essential conditions for the development of labor power and self-ownership, two central principles of modern social organization.

B> Why were witches legally persecuted and what was their place in the popular imagination? James Sharpe examines the historical debate about witches and witch hunts in early modern England, and looks at contemporary views of witchcraft as put forward by judges, theological writers and the medical profession. James Sharpe provides an overview of the current arguments regarding the period and gives flavor of the period through use of contemporary portrayals of witchcraft. Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England includes the important gender dimensions of the witch persecution, and the role of witchcraft in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. And, as the latest book in the Seminar Studies in History series, it is supported by a range of compelling documents. The book concludes with an exploration of why witch panics declined in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. For readers interested in British history or the history of witchcraft and the witch-hunts.