Lost Highway Times...Paths in Oblivion

Ranters, English Civil War.

The English Civil War has been a gold mine for people looking for anti-capitalist writings and thoughts which preceded the rise of the established left; the Diggers have been found and commented upon, before them the Levellers were resurrected.

Now I think it's the Ranters' turn.

I read a little of an anthology of Ranter writing last night, and let me tell you it's some powerful stuff. They go beyond the Diggers in their conception of things and their program. While the Diggers are mainly boring agrarian communists, the Ranters are full out hedonistic anarchists.

They have much more in common with what we think of today when we think of the Anarchist movement than do the Diggers. They were extraordinarily libertarian oriented......and the stuff is still fresh today.

So check them out.