Some annotations of books about the Salem Witch Hunt

Andreski, Stanislav. Syphilis, Puritanism and Witch Hunts. New York, N.Y.: St. Martins Press, 1989.
Andreskis book examines the impact of syphilis on Europe, the assumption that the disease was a product of witchcraft, and the gradual movement toward Puritanism in order to prevent its spread. The book also includes extensively researched background information that is helpful in understanding the ways in which syphilis ultimately contributed to the witch craze of the 16th and 17th centuries. Syphilis, Puritanism and the Witch Hunts provides an effective representation of how various social issues, when compounded, lead to mass hysteria.  Syphilis and other incurable diseases prevalent at that time were thought by some to be the work of witches who gained power through devils. Andreski cites Henri Boguet as believing that these incurable diseases, mainly syphilis, were caused by the witchcraft of the evil devils and incubi. Boguet is quoted as writing, "I maintain that they afflict people with all kinds of ills of the stomach and the head and the feet, with colic, paralysis, apoplexy, leprosy, epilepsy, dropsy, strangury, etc. And this they do easily with the help of Satan" (92).  Edited from a review by Mark Pisano.

Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed: The Social Origin of Witchcraft. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974.
Paul Boyer and Stephan Nissenbaum are both associate professors of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst who have authored several works dealing with Early American History.  They focus on the patterns of accusation focusing on status and geography, the quest for community and identity and the role of religion and ministers.  Salem Village did not have a legal existence apart from Salem Town, yet they were still taxed and still expected to take shifts on the nightly watch in Salem Town. Salem Village was basically isolated, almost to the point of being inbred, in the sense that practically everyone was related through blood or marriage which set the stage for the village, trials and executions. Ironically, the groups that had a significant hand in starting the trials also played a significant role in ending them. The book picks apart the reasoning of how the prayers and sermons of the church had failed to contain the outbreak of the trials and executions, yet the direct and organized intervention of the principal ministers of eastern Massachusetts succeeded. Salem Possessed collects the most extensive primary sources to support the authorss thesis stating that the social issues plaguing Salem Village were mostly to blame for the suffering that went on there. [Note reviews Thomas, Keith. New York Review of Books (1974): 21 and Cowing, Cedric B.  American Historical Review (1974): 47]. Edited from a review by Lori Castiglione.  

Carlson, Laurie M. A Fever in Salem: a New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999.
Winn Carlson, who has a masters degree in History from Eastern Washington University, uses medical evidence to explain the behavior of the Salem community during the witch trials of 1692. Her hypothesis is that many accusers were ailing from encephalitis lethargica (xvi). The author compares the symptoms of the supposed victims of witchcraft in Salem to an outbreak of encephalitis lethargica that occurred between 1916 and 1930 (76). The book is set up into eight chapters, with the main comparative evidence in chapters two and five. The author is a firm believer in the disease theory of the witch hunts, and tries to discredit the misogyny, mass hysteria, and social conflict theories (115-118). She uses over fifty secondary sources and over forty primary sources, most notably Awakenings by Oliver Sacks, which presented the physical behaviors of patients who suffered from encephalitis lethargica during the Twentieth-Century epidemic (98). Winn Carlson does an admirable job of creating a book that is easy to read and has a smooth continuous flow.  I would recommend this book for someone with an advanced knowledge of the Salem witch trials, particularly for someone with a scientific background. I would caution a beginner to read this book with some skepticism and to explore other avenues about the causes of the Salem witch trials.  Annotation by Jonathan Grochowski.

Godbeer, Richard. The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
In his book Godbeer looks at folk magic in the early days of New England and how it was viewed by the clerics of the day, where religion and magic were sometimes intertwined. When the colonists came over from England they brought with them all their different beliefs and practices this included their own beliefs in magic, cunning folk, healing, and divining. Most of the information in regards to magic is found in clerical sources and in legal depositions. The first witch trial, 1648, involved a woman named Margaret Jones whose neighbors admitted to having used countermagic to identify her as responsible for the harm done to their livestock. Godbeer puts forth the idea that magic was such an everyday occurrence for people living in the sixteenth century -- it was not really thought of as witchcraft, until someone pointed it out. [Note reviews Morgan, Edmund S. "Beat the Devil," New York Review of Books, 28 May 1992, 40.and Pestana, Carla Gardinia. Reviews of American History, 21 ( 1993): 13]. Edited from a review by Sandra Silvey.  

Gragg, Larry. The Salem Witch Crisis. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1992.
This book chronologically tells the story of the witch hunt and trials in Salem. In the preface, the author says that, "This is an old-fashioned approach, one based on the belief that history is first and foremost a good story." The book is different from other accounts of the Salem hunts because the author focuses on the impact that the people involved in the trial had on shaping events. The book's thesis stresses that the witch hunters actively shaped the prosecutions by their actions, rather than all of the involved individuals being swept up in a snowballing and escalating phenomenon. Gragg carefully shows how the judges and some townspeople were at first reluctant to accept the idea that certain accused witches were guilty, and he shows the process and rationale as to why they changed their minds. The book is well-written and thoroughly researched, with reference notes at the end of every chapter.  Annotation by Kris Januzzi.

Hansen, Chadwick. Witchcraft at Salem. New York: George Braziller, 1969.
For his book, Hansen brings knowledge from the field of psychology to add a different angle to his interpretation of the trials. Hansens view is that the girls as well as some of those who were accused of being witches were suffering from hysteria. What once was called hysteria is now called a somatization disorder or a somataform disorder. While it is quite possible that one or even a few people suffered from his rare psychological disorder, there is no way that it can be historically proven. His other main purpose in the book seems to be to put the clergy of Boston in a more favorable light than previous history has done. He relays many stories about witch trials that took place in Europe so that the reader has information to compare the situation in Salem with that in Europe. However, his placement of these examples should have been more organized so as to make the book easier for readers. If one were to read only a single book on the Salem Witch Trials, I would recommend a more general book. While his interpretations are insightful, at times he takes them further than he should as an objective historian.  [Note the review Erikson, Kai. "Witchcraft at Salem: Were some of those witches real?" The New York Times, natl. ed., 6 July 1969, Sec. 7,  5].  Edited from a review by Jennifer Levisky.

Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil's Snare. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
In the book, In the Devil's Snare, the author Mary Beth Norton, a professor of history at Cornell University, provides a new theory that reveals the Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 was a result from the mental trauma that occurred after the King Williams War and the King Philips War, also called the First and Second Indian Wars. Nortons book would fall under the Illness Theory, because the accusers were mentally traumatized by the Indian wars. Many of the accusers were connected in some way to these wars, whether they experienced the devastation first hand, or had family members who were involved. When Abigail Williams and Betty Parris first accused Tituba, Samuel Parris Indian slave, she was a symbol of the Indians tormenting New England. Norton helpfully explains the crisis chronologically, in daily and weekly intervals, as events unfolded. She uses many primary sources, like the court archives from Essex County, along with many secondary sources. Where there is missing information Norton fills it in with her opinions on what may have happened.  Even people familiar with the subject of the Salem Witchcraft Crisis could find this book useful. Annotation by Dana Romano.

Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
A professor of History at the State University of New York- Binghamton, Rosenthal claims that the Salem Witch Hunt resulted from fabricated accusations that snowballed into a far-reaching phenomenon. His approach in this book is different from other Salem books because he clears up many myths that have surrounded the witch trials. Using Salem Witchcraft Papers by Paul Boyer and Stephan Nissenbaum, the author describes the situation in Salem as a festival of finding witches, as anyone was susceptible to accusations. Being an accuser was the only safe haven during this time. Rosenthal rejects the common idea that there was one theory for the witch hunts. Rosenthal felt that the situation did not occur as a result of some hysterical or mentally ill girls or youthful teenagers who consumed bad rye (ergot poisoning) and began to hallucinate nor does he give much support to the notion of the character of Tituba. This person's identity has morphed over time:  once thought to be Native American, Tituba is now considered to have been African. Rosenthal also dispels the idea that only females were accused, as various men, including Reverend George Burroughs were accused and convicted of witchcraft.  Not one person who was convicted and executed of witchcraft during the Salem hunts was burned at the stake. He states that because women were first accused and because of stereotypes towards women, historically they are seen as the only accused and convicted of witchcraft in Salem. Through his detailed accounts of what happened, he shows us that the Salem Witch Trial could happen again in different forms. Arranged in chronological order, this book is an excellent source of information about the Salem witch-trials. Although the books contents are an excellent scholarly source for accounts and material about the witch-trials of 1692, Rosenthal has not included a bibliography. Annotated by Eric Calabrese and Christine Collins.  

Sebald, Hans. Witch-Children from Salem to Modern Courtrooms. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995.
Hans Sebald's book Witch-Children from Salem Witch-Hunts to Modern Courtrooms is an in-depth look at the role children have played throughout the western world from the beginnings of the hunts up to the present time. The book is split up into three parts. Sebald states in the introduction that those three parts will examine historical data, a case study, child psychology, and the implications on modern life. His historical data is accurate and the sources are quite well documented and the case study on the Witchboy is a great example of the chaos found in that time period. However, his remarks on child psychology make it seem like suggestibility is their one guiding force. Even in Sebald's case study on the Witchboy something else seems to be going on other than the boy being edged into believing he is possessed. Despite this, Sebald brings about several connections between modern day courtrooms and the witch hunts. The questioning of children and the belief that what they say is accurate in sexual abuse cases and murder trials is certainly something that needs to be analyzed. Annotation by Joshua Philips.

Starkey, Marion L. The Devil in Massachusetts. Garden City, New York: Doubleday& Company, 1969.
The Devil in Massachusetts describes in sequence the people and events that surrounded the Salem Witch Trials. It is written in a narrative format, like a novel, but adds that it is not fiction, it is American history. I think that is what makes it more enjoyable to read. The theory surfaces that these bored young women, living in times that tended to be boring because life consisted of working to eat, were looking for some type of drama in their life. Through all the frustration that had built up inside of the people in town, the final count ended at twenty people dead for crimes that they did not commit. At the end of the book she has her notes and her primary source the Essex County Archives. She also has a selected bibliography of her sources and many secondary sources that she used to research.  Annotation edited from a review by Matt Gingo.