Piero Camporesi is one of the most original and exciting cultural historians in Europe today. In this remarkable book he examines the imaginative world of poor and ordinary people in pre-industrial Europe, exploring their everyday preoccupations, fears and fantasies. Camporesi develops the startling claim that many people in early modern Europe lived in a state of almost permanent hallucination, drugged by their hunger or by bread adulterated with hallucinogenic herbs. The use of opiate products, administered even to children and infants, was widespread and was linked to a popular mythology in which herbalists and exorcists were important cultural figures. Through a careful reconstruction of the everyday imaginative life of peasants, beggars and the poor, Camporesi presents a vivid and disconcerting image of early modern Europe as a vast laboratory of dreams. The book should be of interest to university students and academics in medieval and early modern European history, literature, sociology and anthropology; and general readers interested in life in pre-industrial Europe.

Bread of dreams: Food and fantasy in early modern Europe

Camporesi, Piero

History

Polity Press in association with B. Blackwell

The debate about the nature of modernity and postmodernity has become central to intellectual culture today. In this work, two distinguished social theorists make a distinctive contribution to this continuing discussion. Heller and Feher analyse the causes of the recent changes in the vocabulary of present day politics, summarizing the result in the term "the postmodern political condition". By examining whether the postmodern debate has any relevance to practical politcs today, the authors re-evaluate many concepts - such as socialism and democracy - which have been at the centre of debates for many years. In this they focus on a variety of processes, including the breakdown of the political narrative - identified by some as the end of ideology - the forms of morality which can operate within democratic politics today, and the role of political, social and cultural movements. All this is located within the framework of the decline of Europe as a cultural and political centre, and within the discourse of political philosophy. This book will be of interest to those concerned with current debates in social theory, cultural studies and philosophy.

The postmodern political condition

Politics & Social Sciences

Heller, Ágnes

Anthropology

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Books by Polity Press in association with B. Blackwell