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Published: 13th July 1996This important collection of essays brings together both established figures and new researchers to offer fresh perspectives on the ever controversial subject of the history of witchcraft. Using Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic as a starting point, the contributors explore the changes of the last twenty-five years in the understanding of early modern witchcraft, and suggest new approaches, especially concerning the cultural dimensions of the subject. Witchcraft cases must be understood as power struggles, over gender and ideology as well as social relationships, with a crucial role played by alternative representations. Witchcraft was always a contested idea, never fully established in early modern culture but much harder to dislodge than has usually been assumed. The essays are European in scope, with examples from Germany, France and the Spanish expansion into the New World, as well as a strong core of English material.
"Essential reading on the history of European witchcraft." Richard M. Golden, Religious Studies Review
| Introduction: Keith Thomas and the problem of witchcraft: explanations and representations of witchcraft since Religion and the Decline of Magic | |
| The Crime and its History | |
| 'Many reasons why': Witchcraft and the problem of multiple explanation | |
| 'Witchcraft Studies' in Austria, Germany and Switzerland | |
| State-building and witch-hunting in early modern Europe | |
| Witchcraft and Religion | |
| The Devil in the Old World and the New | |
| 'Saints or sorcerers': Quakerism, demonology and the decline of witchcraft in seventeenth-century England | |
| The Making of a Witch | |
| The descendants of Circe: witches and Renaissance fictions | |
| Witchcraft and fantasy in early modern Germany | |
| The Devil in East Anglia: the Matthew Hopkins trials reconsidered | |
| Witchcraft and the Social Environment | |
| Witchcraft in early modern Kent: stereotypes and the background to accusations | |
| Patriarchal reconstuction and witch-hunting Marianne Hester | |
| Decline | |
| Witchcraft repealed | |
| On the continuation of witchcraft | |
| Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780521638753
ISBN-10: 0521638755
Series: Past and Present Publications
Audience:
Tertiary; University or College
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 388
Published: 11th May 1998
Publisher: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PR
Country of Publication: GB
Dimensions (cm): 20.78 x 15.24
x 2.49
Weight (kg): 0.49
