Cohn the Canary

The work of the historian Norman Cohn has taken on a new resonance. We should heed his warnings.

Inner demons: the execution of Anabaptists at Münster, 1536.

There exists a subterranean world where pathological fantasies disguised as ideas are churned out by crooks and half-educated fanatics for the benefit of the ignorant and superstitious. There are times when this underworld emerges from the depths and suddenly fascinates, captures and dominates multitudes of usually sane and responsible people.

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