Title: Witchcraft in early modern England /
Authors: Sharpe, James.
Publisher: Longman,
Year: 2001
Subjects: Witchcraft England History; Witchcraft England History; Trials (Witchcraft) England History.
Abstract: Introduces readers to the current state of debate and to future directions for investigation. Covers such fundamental topics as: witchcraft as an intellectual and theological problem; neighbourly tensions related to witchcraft accusations; the issue of witchcraft and gender; the problem of the decline of witch-craft persecution. This book is characterized throughout by a straightforward approach which guides the reader through the sometimes difficult details of this fascinating but much-misunderstood subject. The interpretive text is accompanied by a selection of documentary extracts, some of them never previously published, which allows the reader to get to grips with witchcraft as it was experienced in the past, and to understand how historians have constructed their interpretations of early modern witchcraft.
Contents: Elite perspectives on witchcraft: demonology, the law and educated culture -- Witch trials, witchcraft accusations and the problem of community -- Witch beliefs: the broader spectrum -- The decline of witchcraft.