About the Author

Richard Weisman is professor emeritus at York University.

Reviews

"Promises to change the terms of the debate about the Salem witch trials."--New England Quarterly "In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the devil was a codefendant in virtually all criminal indictments and witches were his agents. But [Weisman] argues that the people accused of being witches didn't start the trouble. Rather, they were caught up in a conflict generated by angry villagers, insecure clergymen, and litigious magistrates, whose interests were served by persecuting witches. . . . In this intriguing book, Mr. Weisman succeeds in explaining the complex interaction of religion, government, and popular feeling that led to the execution of twenty people at Salem."--New York Times Book Review "In both substance and interpretation, Richard Weisman has contributed significantly to our understanding of a most complex phenomenon. . . . This is an important book that succeeds in placing Massachusetts witchlore within the contexts both of the region's general history and of recent scholarship on European witchcraft."--Journal of American History "An intriguing assessment of the local episodes which reveal dependence on the invisible world. [The] work is interdisciplinary, gracefully presented, well documented, and should interest colonialists, legal historians, and students of early American religion."--American Studies "Weisman has conducted an excellent review of the historical and social conditions which dominated the witchcraft persecutions and of the role religion played in this enlarged framework. Strong research, helpful appendices, and the ease of his writing style make this a good textbook and an essential secondary source."--Studies in Religion