The Movement of the Free Spirit Book

"The most striking aspect of Vaneigem's compendium of Free Spirit Lore is his ability to release the material into the present, to allow it to communicate on the same level of extremism and disruption as it did in the Middle Ages. Again and again, confronted with the likes of Margaret Porete's ecstatic revisioning of being or John Hartmann's coolly absolutist gnosis, you can almost feel the whole great edifice of social order - their Church, our capitalist democracy - gather itself up, take a deep breath, and run." -- Greil Marcus, author of Lipstick Traces

This book by the legendary Situationist activist is a fiercely partisan historical reflection on the ways religious and economic forces have shaped Western culture. Within this broad frame, Raoul Vaneigem examines the heretical and millennarian movements that challenged social and ecclesiastical authority in Europe from the 1200s into the 1500s. At the core of these heresies, Vaneigem sees not only resistance to the power of State and Church but also the immensely creative intention of new forms of love, sexuality, community and exchange.