Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692

Salem Story engages the story of the Salem witch trials through an analysis of the surviving primary documentation and juxtaposes that against the way in which our culture has mythologized the events of 1692. Salem Story examines a variety of individual motives that converged to precipitate the witch hunt. The book also examines subsequent mythologies that emerged from the events of 1692. Of the many assumptions about the Salem Witch Trials, the most persistent one remains that they were precipitated by a circle of hysterical girls. Through an analysis of what actually happened, through reading the primary material, the emerging story shows a different picture, one where hysteria inappropriately describes the events and where accusing males as well as females participated in strategies of accusation and confession that followed a logical, rational pattern.

Author: Bernard Rosenthal, Rosenthal Bernard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 11/30/1995
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.97lbs
Size: 9.07h x 6.00w x 0.73d
ISBN: 9780521558204

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