Witchcraft, magic, and culture, 1736-1951
By: Owen Davies.
Publisher: Manchester University Press; Distributed in the USA by S. Martin's Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Manchester, UK; New York; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 337
Subjects: Witchcraft -- Great Britain -- History; Magic -- Great Britain -- History
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 296-329) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:  1 EDUCATED ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE POPULAR BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC; title: The denial of witchcraft and the defence of property 2; title: Witchcraft: an anachronism in the 'Age of Enlightenment' 7; title: Continuing religious interest in witchcraft; title: Possession, religion and spiritualism 18; title: Witchcraft and insanity 39; title: Reforming the popular mind 44; title: The legal debate over the Witchcraft and Vagrancy Acts 6i 2 WITCHCRAFT AND POPULAR JUSTICE 79; title: The decline of witchcraft prosecutions 79; title: Authority's role in the persecution and prosecution of witches 83; title: Swimming: the popular adoption of a continental practice 86; title: The continued resort to figures of authority and their response ioo; title: Witch-mobbing as an act offolk justice Io6; title: Witch-mobbing, the parish constable and the coming of the; title: new police Iog; title: 3 WITCHCRAFT, MAGIC AND POPULAR LITERATURE 120; title: Literacy and literature 121; title: Broadsides 124; title: Chapbooks 130; title: Prophecy 142; title: The witch and the Devil 147; title: Almanacs I53; title: Anti-superstition literature I57; title: 4 THE WITCH 167; title: Witches,folklore and belief I68; title: Characteristics of the archetypal witch 174; title: Fairies, flying and shape-shifting 184; title: The witch in court I93; title: Origins of accusations 201; title: Bewitchment and social space 207; title: 5 OCCULT PRACTITIONERS 214; title: Cunning-folk 214; title: Astrologers 229; title: Astrologers of London 236; title: Fortune-tellers 246; title: The reinvention offortune-telling 250; title: Gypsies 258; title: Fortune-telling and the First World War 266; title: 6 DECLINING BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT 27I; title: Measuring declining belief 272; title: Cultural change and the retiring witch 278; title: CONCLUSION 294.