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This pioneering study in the history of revolutionary thought presents a reinterpretation of the development of communism among the lower classes during the English Revolution of the 1640s. The subject of the study is the revolutionary ideology of Gerrard Winstanley, the leader of the Diggers, a group of rural laborers who in 1649 founded a communistic colony and challenged conservative revolutionary leaders like Oliver Cromwell. The main principle of reinterpretation is what the author terms "chronological realism", a method that seeks to analyze Winstanley's ideology on its own terms without reference to modern socialism. Primary among the conclusions of this study is that hermeticism, or the theory of alchemy, formed the basis of what was genuinely revolutionary in Digger ideology.
"Mr. David Mulder's 'Alchemy of Revolution' puts Gerrard Winstanley and the 'Digger' movement in a strikingly new light. By showing the range of components in one 17th-century mentality, and the surprising connections among them, the book not only contributes to intellectual history, but exemplifies great skill in the art of recapturing lost modes of thinking and feeling." (Charles M. Gray, University of Chicago)