In a series of free-wheeling reflections and summaries of scholarship, this book reinterprets history and culture along anarchist lines. From a Marxian point of view, it illuminates capitalism, U.S. history, popular culture, gender relations, and human psychology, even the nature of the fascinating concepts "genius" and "greatness." Its agenda is that of the 17th-century Levellers: deflate the pomposities of elite authority, and bring the world down to the level of democratic reason.