Cultural Writing. CALIBAN AND THE WITCH is a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middl...
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Nov 17, 2011
Bythedeed
rated it: 
It's pretty hard for me to give a book five stars and I'm tempted to give that to Caliban.
I recently read this with some of my friends in a reading group and not only really enjoyed it, but it made me rethink a number of concepts (primarily feminist ones) that I had earlier written off, as well as introduced me entirely new ones.
I had tried to read this five or six years ago but stopped since the language was too complicated for me. Reading it again now (with a few more y More...
I recently read this with some of my friends in a reading group and not only really enjoyed it, but it made me rethink a number of concepts (primarily feminist ones) that I had earlier written off, as well as introduced me entirely new ones.
I had tried to read this five or six years ago but stopped since the language was too complicated for me. Reading it again now (with a few more y More...
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Feb 23, 2010
Scott
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Part of my response paper:
I found this book fascinating, as until the last chapter it covered what was largely new ground to me. The resistance of the serfs to feudalism and early capitalism was inspiring and the thesis that the witch-hunt was a mechanism to regiment and subordinate women to the requirements of capitalism, in particular primitive accumulation, was compelling.
At the same time, something felt off to me about the book. Perhaps it was because this paradigm-sh More...
I found this book fascinating, as until the last chapter it covered what was largely new ground to me. The resistance of the serfs to feudalism and early capitalism was inspiring and the thesis that the witch-hunt was a mechanism to regiment and subordinate women to the requirements of capitalism, in particular primitive accumulation, was compelling.
At the same time, something felt off to me about the book. Perhaps it was because this paradigm-sh More...
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Oct 01, 2009
Kw
rated it: 
This book certainly changes the way one looks at the European witch-hunts of 'Renaissance' times. The basic idea is that these events stemmed from the reluctance of many women (left widowed and destitute by the various 'Peasant Rebellions') to accept the transition from a feudal to an emerging capitalist society. One of the main issues which Federici focuses on is the attempt by the capitalist elite (consisting of nearly all men) to revoke from women their power over reproduction, as one of the
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May 14, 2011
Operaista
rated it: 
First off, this book is incredible, and probably not only the most significant Marxist feminist work I've read in a while, but the most significant feminist work I've read in ages. As Marx noted, capital "comes into the world dripping from head to toe, from every pore, with blood and dirt." Silvia Federici's contribution is not only detailing how much blood the birth of capitalism involved, and the continued blood-letting (new rounds of primitive accumulation, as we're seeing in Africa
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Mar 28, 2010
Absolutely brilliant. Federici starts with the popular heretical movements in the late middle ages, where women played a central role. In this anti-feudal struggle we find the first European grassroots women's movemeent opposed to the established order and envisioning other kinds of communal life. She goes on to write: "Capitalism was the response of the feudal lords, the patrician merchants, the bishops and popes, to a centuries-long social conflict that, in the end, shook their power and
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Jan 30, 2011
Tom
rated it:
Excellent read on the end of European feudalism and the war capitalism waged to subdue peasants. Like many, my education about the Middle Ages was very limited, and my impression was mostly that of a miserable, impoverished peasantry in virtual slavery to their feudal lords. Little did I know that peasants actually had power - and lots of it - in the twilight of feudalism. The disintegrating feudal relationship, along with the massive labor shortage caused by the Black Death, led to massive wars
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Mar 31, 2011
James
rated it:
Pretty good history of the rise of women led resistance to feudalism and pre-capitalism in Europe, and the use of witch hunts to destroy female power and control women's bodies as apart of the rise of Capitalism. A very thorough book, using labor statistics and feminist-marxist methodology to make its mark.
At one point, I was reading it, and a lightbulb went off in my head! ("Aha!") About people fleeing horrendous conditions of Europe for the new world in mass.
Anyw More...
At one point, I was reading it, and a lightbulb went off in my head! ("Aha!") About people fleeing horrendous conditions of Europe for the new world in mass.
Anyw More...
Feb 16, 2011
Natalie
rated it:
Oh my. This book.
I kept wanting to devour the whole thing, but I had to stop every few pages because it overwhelmed me so much. I haven't learned so much from one book in a very long time.
Parts of this were quite emotional for me. It's not often that non-fiction gets me choked up. Looking back at the history of peasant subjugation, land privatization, witch-hunting, and the creation of capitalism from a historical perpsective made our human errors seem so brazen and cle More...
I kept wanting to devour the whole thing, but I had to stop every few pages because it overwhelmed me so much. I haven't learned so much from one book in a very long time.
Parts of this were quite emotional for me. It's not often that non-fiction gets me choked up. Looking back at the history of peasant subjugation, land privatization, witch-hunting, and the creation of capitalism from a historical perpsective made our human errors seem so brazen and cle More...
Nov 05, 2009
Alex
rated it:
Who Were the Witches? – Patriarchal Terror and the Creation of Capitalism
Alex Knight
November 5, 2009
This Halloween season, there is no book I could recommend more highly than Silvia Federici’s brilliant Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation, which tells the dark saga of the Witch Hunt that consumed Europe for more than 200 years. In uncovering this forgotten history, Federici exposes the origins of capitalism in the heightened oppression of wo More...
Alex Knight
November 5, 2009
This Halloween season, there is no book I could recommend more highly than Silvia Federici’s brilliant Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation, which tells the dark saga of the Witch Hunt that consumed Europe for more than 200 years. In uncovering this forgotten history, Federici exposes the origins of capitalism in the heightened oppression of wo More...
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Sep 26, 2008
Az
rated it:
Federici is a feminist philosopher working within the Italian post-autonomist marxist tradition. In Caliban and the Witch she addresses primitive accumulation, or a marxist analysis of the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Capitalism's beginnings, she argues, were not only about coercing bodies into becoming self-disciplining workers but also dividing the proletariat along identitarian lines in order to discipline and displace resistance to capitalism itself. So, women were constituted as
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Dec 17, 2009
Brian
rated it:
From the preface/introduction I was expecting not to like this book very much... The theories seemed too abstract, almost poetic, for my personal taste. But as I've started to get more into the analysis of concrete historical stuff, I'm pretty blown away. I've studied a fair bit about contemporary impacts of capitalist development on women in the global South--one thing this book shows is that very similar patterns were apparent in Europe when capitalism first emerged. Another part I found reall
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Jan 29, 2008
Kersplebedeb
rated it:
This book is available from the Kersplebedeb Literature Rack. You can <a href="mailto:info@kersplebedeb.com>email me</a> to see about ordering a copy.
i liked this book so much i wrote a lengthy essay about it, a shortened version of which was published in the radical journal Upping The Anti.
The essay is too long to post here, but you can read it on the Caliban and the Witch Page on Kersplebedeb. More...
i liked this book so much i wrote a lengthy essay about it, a shortened version of which was published in the radical journal Upping The Anti.
The essay is too long to post here, but you can read it on the Caliban and the Witch Page on Kersplebedeb. More...
Sep 24, 2007
Bart
rated it:
Caliban and the Witch is dense and academic; fortunately, Silvia Federici's theories are somewhat accessible and well-researched. Federici links the strengthing of patriarchies in medieval Europe to the birth of capitalism and working class (opposed to serfdom/slavery). The book contains interesting concepts with a emphasis on increasing strength of patriarchies that often may lead readers astray in thinking patriarchies were not incredibly strong before capitalism.
Dec 24, 2010
Ganglion
rated it:
A Marxist-feminist analysis of the witch trials and the birth of modern capitalism. Very cvlt. Best of all, closed-minded ICC bureaucrats hate it.
Jan 19, 2008
Moxie
rated it: 
I really wanted to like this book, and the history definitely has some choice moments in it, but I'm mostly uninspired by this type of writing right now. I'll take the story of one character's experience in the transition from serfdom to peasanthood over the statistics of how many people experienced what percentage of change any day.
Feb 08, 2008
Marty
rated it:
I'd love to give it 5 stars but it is too stat heavy and academic to warrant a perfect score.
The pluses however are numerous. An interesting and inportant reconstruction of pre-capitalist European history. Good theory, solid and facinatinng footnotes, very engaging despite its style....i highly recommend this book.
The pluses however are numerous. An interesting and inportant reconstruction of pre-capitalist European history. Good theory, solid and facinatinng footnotes, very engaging despite its style....i highly recommend this book.
Mar 22, 2008
Jesse
rated it:
This is such an important book - it makes clear the relationship between economic violence and violence against women and demystifies the witch hunt by putting it into a class context. Even if I disagree here or there about some specifics or terminology - the book overall is one of my absolute favorites.
Dec 16, 2009
Jessica Almitra
rated it:
Super in depth study of Women and the Witch hunts of the Middle Ages. Terrific sources. The author concludes that in order for Capitalism to rise, the suppression of women must increase. Influenced my own writing on women, work and the Middle Ages in my book, "Fighting For Freedom Because A Better World Is Possible."
Jan 28, 2008
Stacy
rated it:
I was reading this mostly for the historical insights on the shaping of gender. I got that and more out of it including interesting information on peasant revolts and the relationships between land tenure and the repression against women, healers, people who work communally, etc.
Nov 07, 2008
Soopaseb
rated it:
A compelling rewriting of Women History. I really appreciate the way Silvia Federici is reading the period of the Great Witch Hunt as a mean of inspiring Terror and set the path free for the rise of capitalism.
Feb 29, 2008
Nadxieli
rated it:
Some good ideas but ignores alternate readings and cherry-picks examples that fit her thesis, to the detriment of her overall project.
Oct 04, 2011
Just read the Review in the Fall 2011 Exponent magazine. Intrigues me even more.
Jan 08, 2012
Shaun
rated it:
Hands down one of the most engaging history books I've read in the last two years.
Feb 21, 2012
Feb 20, 2012
