Norman Cohn 's The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages was first published in 1957. A revised and expanded edition was published in 1970.

In 1995, the Times Literary Supplement included The Pursuit of the Millennium in its list of the 100 most influential books since 1945.

For a New Statesman article in 2009 on The Book That Changed My Life, the philosopher John Gray chose The Pursuit of the Millennium. And the writer Ian McEwan nominated The Pursuit of the Millennium as one of his Top 5 Literary Influences.

 
The Pursuit of the Millennium remains in print and can be purchased here.

Synopsis:

The Middle Ages inherited from antiquity a tradition of prophesy and gave it fresh and exuberant life. This tradition foretold a Millennium in which humanity would enjoy a new Paradise on earth, free of suffering and sin—a Kingdom of the Saints. Generation after generation was intermittently seized by a tense expectation of some sudden, miraculous event in which the world would be utterly transformed. Often these expectations became enmeshed with social unrest and movements arose which sent tremors through the massive structure of medieval society.

Drawing on a huge variety of contemporary sources, this unique and compelling book tells the story of those Millenarian fanaticisms of the Middle Ages and points to their persistence in the modern world.