Witness Against the Beast

“Everything characteristic of the late E. P. Thompson—his clarity, humanity, and breadth of learning—is present in this book.” —The Financial Times

Witness Against the Beast is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary study in which the renowned social historian E. P. Thompson contends that most of the assumptions scholars have made about William Blake are misleading and unfounded. Brilliantly reexamining Blake’s cultural milieu and intellectual background, Thompson detects in Blake’s poetry a repeated call to resist the usury and commercialism of the “Antichrist” embodied by contemporary society—to “witness against the beast.”

“The books stands as a tribute by an outstanding historian to an idiosyncratic genius.” —The Literary Review

“Thompson speaks to us once more in his highly individual voice through the pages of this vital and challenging work.” —The Tribune

“This book should go onto every undergraduate’s reading list.” —The Evening Standard