In Memoriam: Norman Cohn
By Henry R. Lawton
International Psychohistorical Association
Last year I was saddened to learn of the death of Norman Cohn (1915-2007), long an intellectual hero of mine as one of the greatest scholars of our age. Though his scholarly output was moderate (five books and various articles), what he did turn out was diligently researched and well written. The Pursuit of the Millennium (1957) and Warrant for Genocide (1967) are quite justifiably considered classics. Both of these books could not have been written without serious fluency in many languages old and new. Thus it should not surprise us that Cohn had trained as a linguist at Christ College of Oxford, and that by the end of his World War II military service he was doing intelligence work interrogating SS members and other Nazis, as well as refugees from Russia. His wartime experiences had a lot to do with why he turned to history and spent a decade researching The Pursuit of the Millennium. After the war he taught in Scotland, Ireland, England, the United States, and Canada prior to being appointed in 1966 as a Professorial Fellow and then Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex. In addition he assumed directorship of Sussex’s Columbus Centre for Studies of Persecution and Genocide. (Unfortunately I have not been able to determine what this center accomplished or even if it is still in existence.) As a result of nomination by Isaiah Berlin, his work was honored by his election as a Fellow of the British Academy.
Professor Norman Cohn, who was born and raised in London, wrote sophisticated history despite being trained in another field. He chose difficult subject matter in The Pursuit of the Millennium, where he shed new light on the medieval precursors of present-day totalitarian movements and is widely credited for almost single-handedly creating the field of millennial studies. In Warrant for Genocide he conclusively showed how the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a Tsarist anti-Semitic forgerydescribing a vast Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, helped intensify anti-Jewish prejudice contributing to the Holocaust. Unfortunately, despite the fact that it is well known as a fabrication, the Protocols is disseminated over the Internet and is still used all over the world to justify anti-Semitism. In Europe’s Inner Demons (1975) Cohn identified the fantasies that culminated in the widespread scapegoating of out of favor groups such as Jews and women as witches. This process reached truly horrifying proportions in the Inquisition. In Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come (1993), Cohn looked for the roots of apocalyptic/millennial beliefs and found them in the ideas of the ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster. In Noah’s Flood (1996),Cohn examines the bible story of the flood and how it has changed over the centuries.
I discovered Norman Cohn, quite by accident, while I was an undergraduate at Trenton State College. History was the field of my interest and though American history had always been my area of prime interest, I made it a point to read widely. Whenever I had a few extra dollars, one of my favorite recreations was to browse in a bookstore. Since I was living near Princeton University I found the University Store to be like an intellectual candy store because of its enormous selection of books. Later I discovered the Strand Bookstore in New York City; however, since the emergence of the online bookstore Amazon.com I seldom go to traditional bookstores.
In the University Store, by happenstance an interesting book caught my eye. It had a bank of black clouds, topped by red taking up half of the cover. The full title suggested some sort of history not generally known, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Messianism in Medieval and Reformation Europe and its Bearing on Modern Totalitarian Movements (2nd edition, 1961). I remember feeling hesitation, is this book too arcane and obscure? “What the hell,” I said to myself, “Why not take a chance?” It was several months before I got around to reading it and boy was I surprised! I could not put it down.
Reading The Pursuit of the Millennium literally changed my life. It was the first time that I had clearly seen the role of emotion/fantasy at work in the theater of history. This was a decade before I knew about psychohistory. Despite his focus on Medieval and Reformation Europe, Cohn was able define the conditions that might foster emergence of millennial movements with enough precision to allow successful application of his model to other times and/or places. Such effort worked very well for me on undergraduate and graduate levels. (Those wishing a more elaborate discussion of Cohn’s ideas might wish to consult my article “The Dream of the Millennium” published on the Internet at http://www.uq.au/mc/9912/dream.html.) I was earning As on all my history papers and getting introductory exposure to psychohistory without realizing it. However, seeing the third edition (1970) was distressing because Cohn sought to de-emphasize the importance of religious emotion as a factor influencing the nature of modern secular totalitarian movements—a serious error in my opinion. Despite this, Norman Cohn remains one of my intellectual heroes. He had the imagination and courage “to step outside the box.” His work has continued to influence my own thinking, research, and writing. For example, my master’s thesis, Millennial Thinking in the Politics of Richard Nixon and the Potential for Fascism in American Life (1971), and current research on Joseph Smith, Jr. and the Mormons reveal its continuing importance.
Psychohistorians should credit Professor Cohn as one of the first to explore what is now called group fantasy. Even today his ideas remain well ahead of their time. While sad about his passing at age ninety-two years, we should take solace that Norman Rufus Colin Cohn will live on through his path-breaking writings.
Henry R. Lawton, MA, MLS, retired after thirty years as a social worker for the New Jersey Division of Youth & Family Services (DYFS) where he worked with troubled teenagers at risk for out-of-home placement. As an independent psychohistorical scholar for over three decades, he has authored a variety of articles and The Psychohistorian’s Handbook (1988)—still the only how-to text for the field. He is Book Review Editor of the Journal of Psychohistory, Secretary and Past President of the International Psychohistorical Association (IPA), and Founder and (retired) Director of the Group for the Psychohistorical Study of Film. He may be contacted at hwlipa@gmail. com
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