Witchland: A Tale of Witch Hunting and War in Seventeenth-Century Britain
Autor Marion Gibsonen Limba Engleză Hardback – 30 iul 2026
‘An immensely knowledgeable and engaging guide’ The Times
‘A remarkable feat of scholarship and empathy’ Shelley Puhak, author of The Blood Countess
‘Astounding . . . a tour-de-force of archival research’ Publishers Weekly
'As close to an eye-witness view of [British witch trials] as we are likely to get' Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch
*
If the witchfinders came to your town, who would you have believed – and what would you have done?
In the 1640s, Britain was swept up in a brutal witch hunt. The economic uncertainty and religious extremism fuelled by the English Civil War created a climate of fear. Neighbours turned on each other. Women and the poor were especially vulnerable, scapegoated by the powerful looking for someone to blame. In the resulting hysteria – which would, just a few decades later, provide a handbook for the Salem trials – hundreds of innocent people were killed.
Moving from village to village in Scotland and England, Professor Marion Gibson reveals how accusations grew out of everyday tensions – poverty, grief, and resentment – and how entire communities took part in persecuting the vulnerable. Drawing on newly uncovered historical records, this gripping account restores the voices of those accused of witchcraft. Vivid and intimate, Witchland shows that these were ordinary people with extraordinary stories, largely forgotten by history, caught up in suspicion and moral panic.
Witchland is a captivating story of fanaticism, inequality and the violence that surfaces during times of political upheaval.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781398545144
ISBN-10: 1398545147
Pagini: 320
Dimensiuni: 153 x 234 x 23 mm
Editura: Simon&Schuster
Colecția Simon & Schuster UK
ISBN-10: 1398545147
Pagini: 320
Dimensiuni: 153 x 234 x 23 mm
Editura: Simon&Schuster
Colecția Simon & Schuster UK
Notă biografică
Marion Gibson is Emerita Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter. She’s been thinking about witches in history since she read her first account of a witch trial in a book lent to her on a dark, rainy afternoon thirty years ago. She was so excited by the story that she forgot to give the book back.
She is the author of nine books on witches in history and literature, most recently Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials (Simon & Schuster) and The Witches of St Osyth (Cambridge University Press). She lives in Devon.
She is the author of nine books on witches in history and literature, most recently Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials (Simon & Schuster) and The Witches of St Osyth (Cambridge University Press). She lives in Devon.
Recenzii
‘Gibson is an immensely knowledgeable and engaging guide to a bizarre historical phenomenon, with a knack for teasing out the individual stories behind the national panic, and her case study-based approach reveals the importance of local dynamics’
‘Terrifying but compulsive . . . I finished this wonderful book feeling less like a voyeur of historic pain and more like someone who has received a timely reminder about the life-and-death importance of never allowing yourself to get caught up in the latest criminal conspiracy’
'No historian before Marion Gibson has managed to convey so well the lived reality of British witch trials at the local level, rooting them vividly and perceptively both in their physical landscapes and in the identities and experiences of seventeenth-century villagers and townspeople. This is as close to an eye-witness view of them as we are likely to get'
'Witchland is a remarkable feat of scholarship and empathy, a journey through 1640s Britain to explore an outbreak of “well-meaning mass murder.” Marion Gibson painstakingly excavates and recenters the lives of the victims; she proves this panic was neither inevitable nor inexplicable and reminds us that resistance was – and is – possible. A chilling and timely read!'
'Witchland gives witches back their names. This book gives us history with its feet on the ground, harrowing in its wealth of ordinary details. Gibson dispels the fog of centuries, allowing us to glimpse the real people of a terrible era'
'A disturbing portrait of centuries-old paranoia that speaks to our times… The stories of how men and women ran afoul of their neighbors and how the witch hunters bamboozled superstitious villagers into believing fellow townspeople collaborated with the devil makes for arresting reading'
‘Gibson offers an astounding revisitation of the witch panic that swept through Britain during the English Civil War ... It’s a tour-de-force of archival research and an unsettling cautionary tale’
'These stories of witchcraft, true and vividly told, demonstrate the potent reality of belief in evil and how in any era or place fear can be weaponised and marginal people, mostly women, labelled as wicked and dangerous. Together they comprise not just a history of witchcraft but a cautionary tale’
'Thought-provoking and timely . . . Searing'
‘A vital and vivid study on the history of witch trials. Fantastic’
‘Terrifying but compulsive . . . I finished this wonderful book feeling less like a voyeur of historic pain and more like someone who has received a timely reminder about the life-and-death importance of never allowing yourself to get caught up in the latest criminal conspiracy’
'No historian before Marion Gibson has managed to convey so well the lived reality of British witch trials at the local level, rooting them vividly and perceptively both in their physical landscapes and in the identities and experiences of seventeenth-century villagers and townspeople. This is as close to an eye-witness view of them as we are likely to get'
'Witchland is a remarkable feat of scholarship and empathy, a journey through 1640s Britain to explore an outbreak of “well-meaning mass murder.” Marion Gibson painstakingly excavates and recenters the lives of the victims; she proves this panic was neither inevitable nor inexplicable and reminds us that resistance was – and is – possible. A chilling and timely read!'
'Witchland gives witches back their names. This book gives us history with its feet on the ground, harrowing in its wealth of ordinary details. Gibson dispels the fog of centuries, allowing us to glimpse the real people of a terrible era'
'A disturbing portrait of centuries-old paranoia that speaks to our times… The stories of how men and women ran afoul of their neighbors and how the witch hunters bamboozled superstitious villagers into believing fellow townspeople collaborated with the devil makes for arresting reading'
‘Gibson offers an astounding revisitation of the witch panic that swept through Britain during the English Civil War ... It’s a tour-de-force of archival research and an unsettling cautionary tale’
'These stories of witchcraft, true and vividly told, demonstrate the potent reality of belief in evil and how in any era or place fear can be weaponised and marginal people, mostly women, labelled as wicked and dangerous. Together they comprise not just a history of witchcraft but a cautionary tale’
'Thought-provoking and timely . . . Searing'
‘A vital and vivid study on the history of witch trials. Fantastic’
Descriere
A completely new history of the country’s biggest witch hunt, written by Witchcraft author and Renaissance and Magical Literatures professor Marion Gibson.