num_pages: 288
description: The roots of European witchcraft and magic lie in Hebrew and other ancient Near Eastern cultures and in the Celtic Nordic and Germanic traditions of the Continent. For two millennia European folklore and ritual have been imbued with the belief in the supernatural yielding a rich trove of histories and images.A series that combines traditional approaches of political legal and social historians with critical syntheses of cultural anthropology historical psychology and gender studies Witchcraft and Magic in Europe provides a modern scholarly survey of the supernatural beliefs of Europeans from ancient times to the present day. Each of the six volumes in the series contains the work of distinguished scholars chosen for their expertise in a particular era or region. The eighteenth century saw the end of witch trials everywhere. The authors chart the process of and reasons for the decriminalization of witchcraft but also challenge the widespread assumption that Europe then became disenchanted. Here for the first time are surveys of the social role of witchcraft in European communities as well as a full treatment of Victorian supernaturalism and of the continued importance of witchcraft and magic as topics of debate among intellectuals and other writers.Other volumes in the series Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Period of the Witch Trials
language: English
title: Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Vol. 5: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press