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tocupine's review against another edition
5.0
Deeply fascinating look on the oppression of women via the witch hunts during the transition to capitalism. Highly recommended.
outcolder's review against another edition
4.0
Every time they have a crisis, we’re the ones they sacrifice and they justify it by accusing us of human sacrifice. This book also has tons of amazing illustrations.
Precisely two months after finishing this book, I came across this amazing bit in "The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression" by Andrew Solomon on page 297: "The northern idea of a relationship between witches and melancholy gives the southern idea of a relationship between genius and melancholy a good run for its money. The Dutch court doctor Jan Wier (whose De praestigiis daemonum was listed by Freud as one of the ten greatest books of all time) was a great defender of witches as the victims of their own melancholia; his assertion that these unfortunate ladies were sick in the head saved a number of them from execution. He argued his position by showing that the victims of witches were usually delusional, focusing on a large number of men in northern Europe who accused witches of stealing their penises. Wier insisted other men could usually spot the stolen organs physically present right where they had always resided and proposed that men were seldom abandoned by their "needles." If the men who were the "victims" of witches suffered from delusions, then surely the ones who supposed that they were witches were only the more delusional. This model was taken up by the Englishman Reginald Scot, who in his 1584 book on witchcraft proposed that witches were all merely depressed and foolish old women, prodded by evil as though it were a mosquito, who ineptly took on themselves blame for the problems they saw around them. In their "drousie minds the divell hath goten a fine seat; so as, what mischeefe, mischance, calamatie, or slaughter is brought to passe, they are easily persuaded the same is doone by themselves." This view, that what had been held to be religious truth was all merely delusion and connected to melancholic illness, had strong opponents who continued to champion the medieval position; though Scot's book was broadly read in Elizabethan England, King James commanded that all copies of it be burned -- as though the books themselves were witches."
Precisely two months after finishing this book, I came across this amazing bit in "The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression" by Andrew Solomon on page 297: "The northern idea of a relationship between witches and melancholy gives the southern idea of a relationship between genius and melancholy a good run for its money. The Dutch court doctor Jan Wier (whose De praestigiis daemonum was listed by Freud as one of the ten greatest books of all time) was a great defender of witches as the victims of their own melancholia; his assertion that these unfortunate ladies were sick in the head saved a number of them from execution. He argued his position by showing that the victims of witches were usually delusional, focusing on a large number of men in northern Europe who accused witches of stealing their penises. Wier insisted other men could usually spot the stolen organs physically present right where they had always resided and proposed that men were seldom abandoned by their "needles." If the men who were the "victims" of witches suffered from delusions, then surely the ones who supposed that they were witches were only the more delusional. This model was taken up by the Englishman Reginald Scot, who in his 1584 book on witchcraft proposed that witches were all merely depressed and foolish old women, prodded by evil as though it were a mosquito, who ineptly took on themselves blame for the problems they saw around them. In their "drousie minds the divell hath goten a fine seat; so as, what mischeefe, mischance, calamatie, or slaughter is brought to passe, they are easily persuaded the same is doone by themselves." This view, that what had been held to be religious truth was all merely delusion and connected to melancholic illness, had strong opponents who continued to champion the medieval position; though Scot's book was broadly read in Elizabethan England, King James commanded that all copies of it be burned -- as though the books themselves were witches."
avabevs's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
savaging's review against another edition
5.0
I went into this book knowing that Federici has been criticized for exaggerating the extent of the witch hunt in Europe. So I was enheartened to find this book is about so much more than that. The witch hunt is one example of a war against women, which itself ultimately served as a way to break the strength of poor and working class people. Misogyny destroys resistance in a way analogous to how white supremacy and the invention of race-based chattel slavery broke solidarity between white and black poor people in the colonies. The peasant class had their land stolen, but men were bought off with patriarchy, as women became the new 'commons.'
The most fascinating part for me was Federici's argument that the birth of capitalism required a cultural shift in our ideas about bodies. Capitalism can't function while bodies are sacred and their pleasure and care are prioritized. Bodies have to be neutralized, divided into inert parts that can be controlled by the needs of industry. That chapter alone made the book 5 stars for me.
The most fascinating part for me was Federici's argument that the birth of capitalism required a cultural shift in our ideas about bodies. Capitalism can't function while bodies are sacred and their pleasure and care are prioritized. Bodies have to be neutralized, divided into inert parts that can be controlled by the needs of industry. That chapter alone made the book 5 stars for me.