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2007-01-27 20:27
From: satellite360
(Beijing)
a review of The World Turned Upside Down
A study of the brief period in English history when it looked almost possible that such radical "underground" groups as the Diggers, Ranters, Levellers and assorted visionaries might succeed in throwing off the yolk of God, King and the propertied classes and establish communal property, democracy in politics and law, and a disestablished state church.
A favourite quote from the brilliant Gerrard Winstanley:
For the power of enclosing land and owning property was brought into the creation by your ancestors by the sword; which first did murder their fellow creatures, men, and after plunder or steal away their land, and left this land successively to you, their children. And therefore, though you did not kill or thieve, yet you hold that cursed thing in your hand by the power of the sword; and so you justify the wicked deeds of your fathers, and that sin of your fathers shall be visited upon the head of you and your children to the third and fourth generation, and longer too, till your bloody and thieving power be rooted out of the land.
http://www.satellite360.com/article/?c=Gerrard-Winstanley
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By Christopher Hill
Penguin (Non-Classics)
ISBN: 0140137327
Release Date: 1984-12-04
Paperback
List Price: USD 16.00
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