Review by Choice Review
Every college or university library that holds at least one book on the witchcraft trials at Salem in 1692 ought to acquire this book as well. It is a carefully and clearly written account of how historians--both professional and amateur, usually with the noblest of intentions--have come to accept general categorizations of the persons accused of witchcraft, their accusers, and their judges--categorizations that are derived far more from elements of later politics, ethics, and sentimentality than from a close reading of the records. By his own close reading of the record and its subsequent historiography, Rosenthal dismantles many of these assumptions (for example, adolescent female hysteria, Tituba's "wild and strange superstitions," or the Christian martyr-figure, Rebecca Nourse) and substitutes a minimalist account of the proceedings, but one that is much more consistent with the available evidence and the applicability of theory to it. Rosenthal begins with chapters on Tituba and the first accusers and proceeds virtually case by case through the trials and executions in the summer of 1692. The book concludes with two chapters of general assessment. Rosenthal pays close and shrewd attention to the law as well as to theology and popular belief. The book is an instantly standard item in--and guide through--both the scholarly and popular history of the Salem trials. All levels. E. Peters; University of Pennsylvania
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
