The Witch Hunts: A History of the Witch Persecutions in Europe and North America

by Robert Thurston

Overview

Tens of thousands of people were persecuted and put to death as witches between 1400 and 1700 – the great age of witch hunts. Why did the witch hunts arise, flourish and decline during this period? What purpose did the persecutions serve? Who was accused, and what was the role of magic in the hunts? This important reassessment of witch panics and persecutions in Europeand colonial America both challenges and enhances existing interpretations of the phenomenon. Locating its origins 400 years earlier in the growing perception of threats to Western Christendom, Robert Thurston outlines the development of a ‘persecuting society’ in which campaigns against scapegoats such as heretics, Jews, lepers and homosexuals set the scene for the later witch hunts.

He examines the creation of the witch stereotype and looks at how the early trials and hunts evolved, with the shift from accusatory to inquisitorial court procedures and reliance upon confessions leading to the increasing use of torture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781317865001
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/26/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Robert Thurston

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. New fears in Europe: 700-1500 2. Toward the Witch Pyres: Images and Realities of European Women to 1500 3. The Spread of the Witch Trials 4. Victims and Processes 5. The Decline and End of the Hunts Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"comprehensive account of one of the most malign periods in Eureopean history" - Glasgow Herald

'Lively and readable. It is written in a style as personal and attractive as any I have encountered...It has just the right balance of magisterial detachment and personal insight.'

Ronald Hutton, University of Bristol

6 page feature article on book in History Today, November 2006

From the Publisher