Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
Subtitle: Studies in Culture and Belief (Past and Present Publications)
Contributors: Jonathan Barry (Editor); Marianne Hester (Editor); Gareth Roberts (Editor)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: July 13, 1996
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 385
ISBN-13: 9780521552240
Subjects: European history: c 1500 to c 1750; Occultism & quasi-religious beliefs; c 1700 to c 1800; c 1800 to c 1900; History; Witchcraft; Body, Mind & Spirit; History - General History; Sociology; Europe; Europe - General; Magick Studies; Body, Mind & Spirit-Magick Studies; History / Europe / General; Witchcraft--Europe--History; Witchcraft & Wicca; England; Occultism
Description: This important collection of essays brings together both established figures and new researchers to offer fresh perspectives on the ever controversial subject of the history of witchcraft. Using Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic as a starting point, the contributors explore the changes of the last twenty-five years in the understanding of early modern witchcraft, and suggest new approaches, especially concerning the cultural dimensions of the subject.

Witchcraft cases must be understood as power struggles, over gender and ideology as well as social relationships, with a crucial role played by alternative representations. Witchcraft was always a contested idea, never fully established in early modern culture but much harder to dislodge than has usually been assumed. The essays are European in scope, with examples from Germany, France and the Spanish expansion into the New World, as well as a strong core of English material.