A groundbreaking work that has made Federici a pivotal figure for a new generation of feminists.

Since its publication in the early years of this century, "Caliban and the Witch" has become a cult classic. It is Silvia Federici's account of the body in the transition to capitalism. From the peasant uprisings of the late Middle Ages to the European witch hunts, the rise of scientific rationalism, and the colonization of America, it offers a panoramic overview of the often brutal violence with which the untamed human material of pre-capitalist societies was transformed into a series of predictable and controllable mechanisms. It is a study of the shattered indigenous traditions, the confinement of women's reproductive powers within the nuclear family, and how our modern world was forged in blood.

Rewarding, it allows us to better understand the intimate relationship between modern patriarchy, the rise of the nation-state, and the transition from feudalism to capitalism.