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Witchcraft

A History in Thirteen Trials

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About this listen

 Salem, King James VI, Malleus Maleficarum. The world of witch hunts and witch trials sounds antiquated, relics of an unenlightened and brutal age. However, 'witch hunt' is heard often in the present-day media, and the misogyny it is rooted in is all too familiar today. A woman was prosecuted under the 1735 Witchcraft Act as recently as 1944.

This book uses thirteen significant trials to explore the history of witchcraft and witch hunts. As well as investigating some of the most famous trials from the middle ages to the 18th century, it takes us in new and surprising directions. It shows us how witchcraft was decriminalised in the 18th century, only to be reimagined by the 1780s Romantic radicals. We will learn how it evolved from being seen as a threat to Christianity to perceived as gendered persecution, and how trials against chieftains in Africa stoked anger against colonial rule.

Significantly, the book tells the stories of the victims - women, such as Helena Scheuberin and Joan Wright - whose stories have too often been overshadowed by those of the powerful men, such as King James VI and I and “Witchfinder General” Matthew Hopkins, who hounded them.

While this will be a history of witchcraft, the subject cannot be consigned to the history books. Hundreds of people, mostly women, are tried and killed as witches every year in Africa. ‘WITCH HUNT!’ is as common in our language today as ever it was, and witches are still on trial across the world.

 Gender Studies Magic Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts Social Sciences Women Magic Users Witchcraft Scary Law Africa
All stars
Most relevant
Some good parts but others quite disappointing. Lacks a bit of detail.

The pre-C21 pieces are good but the author seems to loose it a bit in the later chapters. Becomes a bit of a rant on the evils of modern society.

Disappointing

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New insights into an important and devastating part of history and the present. Chapter on Stormy Daniels especially relevant now. Looking at what is hard to look at. Understanding what must be understood, in order to avoid new mistakes. Well told, easy to read and follow.

Reverent now.

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very interesting, triggered all sorts of feelings a very enjoyable and captivating listen. Highly recommended

amazing

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This isn't, strictly speaking, an academic historic work (which I hoped it would be), more a sociological one, with attempt to say something brave or daring. It lacks depth and details and tries to substitute it with modern agenda, for example with such a lazy, often repeated elsewhere trope that those accused of witchcraft in the past were innocent vulnerable people while, at the same time, modern "witches" are necessarily subversive empowered trailblazers. The lack of actual details and historic knowledge (16th century prosecutions in England which were plentiful don't even get a word), coupled with such banal assertions makes it quite disappointing for me. It gives a fragmented impression as well, feels quite incoherent, haphazard.

And since the author, like all, including good historians, stands on premise that the accused in the past were always innocent - and that in the time of mass belief in power of magic to harm - the book irritated me enough to point out this: in order to understand why the accusations of witchcraft happened in the first place, any author, including this one, will tell us that it was because the accusers and the prosecutors believed in harmful magic, i.e witchcraft; but when we look at the accused, (and this book no exception) we are always invited to view them with our modern eyes and rational conviction that magic doesn't exist and any rituals therefore are harmless or ineffective, so these people simply could not have performed anything harmful. Here is a double standard. You can't measure the accusers and prosecutors with one principle (belief in witchcraft), and the accused - with another (disbelief in witchcraft). The accused lived in the same old times when everyone en masse believed in magical harm. Therefore, even if they physically could not have done any harm by magic, this is not to say that SOME of them didn't try. We can only be certain of no magic harm happening but we cannot be certain of the lack of INTENT to harm. And that's why such a book, with all its fashionable haranguing about white patriarchy, colonialism, and social disadvantage of the accused as the main exonerating reason, is a bit annoying.

The women accused of witchcraft in late medieval and early modern times were not witches. But some, or few, may well have tried to harm by magic, and some confessions could reflect that and not all of them being forced. Intent is harder to prove though and the executions were tragic, but modern con women such as Helen Duncan, or American tarot readers pocketing tens of thousand dollars, certainly encourage much less sympathy, patriarchy or not. The book just doesn't hold well together, has a disjointed feel to it and is quite erratically written.

Sociology, not history

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An engaging and well-researched analysis which is well-written. This book will prove of interest to anyone curious about the representation of witchcraft and witches across several contexts. The material is wide-ranging and well-managed and is presented in a very readable/listenable manner.

Engaging accounts of a range of ‘witch’ trials

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