Did the nineteenth century ever come to an end? Was the twentieth century just a re-run?

If to know "History" as tragedy is to escape its repetition as farce, then perhaps we need to look more deeply at this Past that won't stop haunting us.

Two illuminated madmen--Charles Fourier and Friedrich Nietzsche--and two too-sane geniuses--J.-P. Proudhon and Karl Marx--are enlisted in the break-out plan. The shape of this plan is then suggested in a final essay showing how old "rights and customs" of paleolithic reciprocity and egalitarian spirituality have made innumerable re-entries into History.

Autonomedia books are at their best when they juxtapose people and ideas in unusual and unexpected ways, and this title is a perfect example.