A Classic in Millennial Studies

Norman Cohn's work, The pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Messianism in Medieval and Reformation Europe and it Bearing on Modern Totalitarian Movements (1961), is a classic work in the field of millennial studies. It is also, perhaps surprisingly, relevant to today's contemporary environment of religious terrorism. Cohn was one of the first scholars to identify the phenomenon of apocalyptic violence which he refers to as militant, revolutionary chiliasm (p. 309). Cohn traces apocalyptic violence from the viewpoint of a historian. Concluding his work, Cohn discusses the two major totalitarian movements of the twentieth century, Nazism and Communism, and connects them with medieval apocalyptic movements. This book, according to the Times Literary Supplement, is rank among the 100 most influential books of the 20th century.