Caliban and the Witch

Women, The Body, and Primitive Accumulation

by

Paperback, 288 pages

English language

Published Oct. 1, 2004 by Autonomedia.

ISBN:
978-1-57027-059-8
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5 stars (1 review)

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.

"It is both a passionate work of memory recovered and a hammer of humanity's agenda." Peter Linebaugh, author of The London Hanged"

2 editions

reviewed Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici

Engaging and provocative, fearless and harrowing

5 stars

Caliban and the Witch was excellent. I feel changed by Federici’s work, and in how I understand the history and uses of misogyny, of sex, of commons and community and spiritual institutions. This book, despite being quite broad and in parts knowingly speculative, has been useful to me in pointing at so many of the ways in which we have been shaped—through violence, belief, division—into the societies and economies of today.

Subjects

  • Cultural studies
  • Social theory
  • Women's studies
  • Women's Studies - History
  • Women - Modern History
  • Social Science
  • Sociology
  • Modern - 16th Century
  • Social History
  • Women's Studies - General
  • Capitalism
  • Economic conditions
  • Europe
  • History
  • Social conditions
  • Women