Prophets of a new age

by Martin Burgess Green

More than crystals and occultism, New Age movements have existed throughout modern history in many guises, finding their strength and popularity in a visionary politics of hope at which realists traditionally balk. Yet what realist would have dreamed of the overnight end of the Cold War, German reunification, or the dismantling of Apartheid? In Prophets of a New Age, Martin Green takes a serious look at three centuries of a social and cultural movement much maligned by academics and men of action. Defining a New Ager as one who sees "the possibility of a radically new life for anyone courageous enough to embrace it," Green examines an extraordinary array of thought and deeds of revolutionaries, journalists, vegetarians, and poets--hermits and leaders of nations, all of whom are linked by a common concern for change in society. From Paine, Tolstoy, and Gandhi to Shirley MacLaine and Gary Snyder, an imaginative though disparate group of voices is heard and analyzed in concert for the fir