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Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials Hardcover – January 16, 2024

by Marion Gibson (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 53 ratings
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A “thought-provoking and timely” (The Times, London) global history of witch trials across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, told through thirteen distinct trials that illuminate a pattern of demonization and conspiratorial thinking that has profoundly shaped human history.

This “inventive and compelling” (Times Literary Supplement) work of social history travels through thirteen witch trials across history, some famous—like the Salem witch trials—and some lesser-known: on Vardø island, Norway, in the 1620s, where an indigenous Sami woman was accused of murder; in France in 1731, during the country’s last witch trial, where a young woman was pitted against her confessor and cult leader; in Lesotho in 1948, where British colonial authorities executed local leaders. Exploring how witchcraft was feared, then decriminalized, and then reimagined as gendered persecution, Witchcraft takes on the intersections between gender and power, indigenous spirituality and colonial rule, political conspiracy and individual resistance.

Offering a striking, dramatic journey unspooling over centuries and across continents, Witchcraft is a “well-rounded insight into some of the strangest and cruelest moments in history” (Buzz Magazine), giving voice to those who have been silenced by history.
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  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Scribner
  4. Publication date
    January 16, 2024
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 1.2 x 8.38 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1668002426
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1668002421
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

Witchcraft

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The trials of the accused people in Witchcraft return to us, in detail, lives about which we might otherwise know nothing.”
—The New Yorker

"Belong[s] firmly within the contemporary examination of the United States’ ongoing and multifaceted satanic panic."
—The Washington Post

“Thought-provoking and timely... Searing”
—Jessie Childs, The Times

“Inventive and compelling... A work of restitution and historical reparation, an attempt to give voice to those who have been silenced over the centuries”
—Times Literary Supplement

“From demonology to royal ascensions, Gibson demonstrates how identity politics, power plays and cultural differences all crashed together to allow these historic injustices to occur… A well-rounded insight into some of the strangest and cruellest moments in history.”
—Buzz Magazine

“Thirteen witch trials are brought vividly to life in Gibson’s wide-ranging book”
—Daily Mail

"Gibson tells the story of the women and men whom those in power tried to silence — sometimes permanently."
—BookRiot

“A fascinating and revelatory look at real witch hunts…[Gibson] fashion[s] a book that is at once readable and informative, an energetic and declarative statement on a particular brand of cruelty that is at its most historically hysterical and rotten”
—BookReporter

"A thought-provoking, sweeping work of social history."
—Kirkus

"An empathetic survey of witch trials spanning seven centuries and three continents... this vividly drawn and often surprising account succeeds in its aim to provide an expansive vision of the witch trial that extends far beyond Salem."
—Publishers Weekly

“It is wonderful to come across a book that breathes such fresh life and energy into a well-worked subject, covering a huge range of time and space with a unified, passionate and convincing message. Any expert is going to learn something new from it, any newcomer to be enthralled and motivated.”
—Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch

“These stories of witchcraft, true and vividly told, demonstrate the potent reality of belief in evil and how in any era or place fear can be weaponised and marginal people, mostly women, labelled as wicked and dangerous. Together they comprise not just a history of witchcraft but a cautionary tale of the uncomfortably human habits of paranoia and persecution.”
—Malcom Gaskill, author of The Ruin of All Witches

"By putting the focus on a selection of history's most fascinating—and disturbing—witch trials, the author simultaneously tells the wider history of the witch hunts, from the fifteenth century to the present day. It is a story at once archaic and shockingly modern. A brilliant book"
—Tracy Borman, author of Elizabeth's Women

"Erudite, insightful and provocative. This investigation of witch trials—and of the long shadow cast by women’s vilification as witches over our modern lives – is essential, rage-inducing reading."
—Annie Garthwaite, author of Cecily and The King’s Mother

About the Author

Marion Gibson is Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter, UK. She is the author of seven academic books on witches in history and literature: Reading Witchcraft; Possession, Puritanism, and Print; Witchcraft Myths in American Culture; Imagining the Pagan Past; Rediscovering Renaissance Witchcraft; Witchcraft: The Basics and, with Jo Esra, Shakespeare’s Demonology. Marion has also edited five books for publishers such as Routledge and Ashgate, published around twenty chapters and articles, and she is General Editor of the series Elements in Magic for Cambridge University Press. Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials is her most recent work.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner (January 16, 2024)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1668002426
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1668002421
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.38 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 53 ratings

About the author

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Marion Gibson

Marion Gibson

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I write about witches in history from the middle ages to the present.

I got interested in stories of magic and witchcraft when I read news accounts of witch trials in Elizabethan England: I realised that whilst I didn't believe the accused people had been doing actual magic, I had no good explanation of why they would confess. What was going on here? What stories were they telling us about their lives? From this came my lifelong interest in storytelling about witches.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
53 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

ophelia99
5.0 out of 5 stars The truly wicked aren't the so-called witches
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2024
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This is a book about how woo-woo and nonsensical religious beliefs that are often folded into mainstream religions can easily be weaponized to go after those with very little power with which to fight back. Keeping women in our place was/is (these horrors are still going on today as she details in later chapters), one of the primary motivations of those running the persecutions, but other motives can include the opportunity to project their sexual kinks onto others (see Freud, Sigmund) or opportunities to gain status and fame and wealth--in some places accused witches wind up enslaved--and political power through being seen as a warrior against evil (even when that evil is completely imaginary) or an excuse to go after some minority group they don't like.
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Sonee Singh
4.0 out of 5 stars Well Researched
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2024
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Interesting and well-researched account of how women and other marginalized people have been vilified as witches for hundreds of years. It starts with witch trials in Europe and recounts how the concept of witches has evolved into modern times. In parts, the author incorporated her educated guess/opinion rather than purely sticking to fact, but it was still eye-opening and worth reading.
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NH
5.0 out of 5 stars What I found so interesting about Marion Gibson's book is the commonality among the accused.
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2024
Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trails was fascinating! It tells the story of witchcraft as I have not heard it before. Rose Akroyd did a very good job of narrating. Her voice was always engaging. The book begins with the trial of Helena Scheuberin in 1485. She was acquitted. Heinrich Kramer, the prosecutor who lost, went on to write Malleus Maleficarum two years later. That book fueled murders under the charge of witchcraft. It was used to justify charges in some of the other chases listed in the book.

What I found so interesting about Marion Gibson's book is the commonality among the accused. Whether they were male or female, they were for the most part powerless. They did not have wealth or social standing. Gibson reminds us that the "witches" were victims. Victims who rarely had their dignity returned after death.

The reason I chose to request this book was Chapter Nine: The Trial of John Blymyer. After I had lived in the United States for about three years, I learned about the Nelson Rehmeyer. In the new neighborhood we moved into, the man across the street grew up with John Blymyer. He told his daughter and the neighborhood kids what he remembered. At no time did he blame Rehmeyer. He viewed Rehmeyer as a victim. Hearing a living history filtered through a contemporaries eyes creates a passion for history. Marion Gibson's book brought out that same passion.

I received a copy of the audiobook from Simon and Schuster. I listened to it and wrote an honest review.
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JaxR
4.0 out of 5 stars The thread of dogma that follows witch hunts over centuries
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2024
Witches and witch hunting—literally and metaphorically—are comfortably ensconced in our cultural landscape with witch costumes remaining among the top choices for generations of trick-or-treaters. The witch hunt, which began in Europe and found its way to the colonies through the Puritan culture, is still alive today, but accusations of witch hunting are generally made in a metaphorical sense.

The term witch hunt made it into the political lexicon with McCarthy during his effort to root out communism. Today, it is an often-used tool in partisan politics to either discredit a rival, deflect accountability for wrongdoing, or disempower an allegation. It’s interesting that the first witch trial in 1485 Austria was motivated to silence dissent. One way or the other, the goal is to silence a real or perceived opponent.

Gibson argues that demonology was shaped with the either/or thinking of the Reformation when the Christian Church began to split over church doctrine. The hatred that grew through this polarization was the prerequisite for witch hunting—the permission to kill fellow Christians. While magical practitioners were common during that period, their perceived power came under scrutiny as Christian clergymen reframed magical practice as “a career committed to wickedness,” one that sets itself against the church. By and large, women were the accused. The Eve myth led to the conclusion that women are more susceptible to Satan’s temptations, especially those who are poor and powerless. They are, the thinking went, most likely to trade their souls for empowerment and a comfortable life.

In this book, Gibson covers thirteen trials that represent stages in the evolution of witch-hunting over the centuries from the mid fifteenth to the twenty-first in which modern technology and communication come into play.

The arguments made in this book would be stronger had writer’s distance been honored, as would be expected in an academic work. One hopes to be walked to conclusions rather than dragged with loaded language.

Marion Gibson is a Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Director of the Flexible Combined Honours degree programme.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for providing this eARC.
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AndreaRomance
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and easy to understand
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2024
This book delves into thirteen famous and lesser-known witch trials throughout history, exploring the evolving perceptions of witchcraft from feared crime to feminist symbol. It amplifies long-silenced voices and sheds light on the complex narrative behind societal attitudes and gendered persecution of witches over the centuries.

This book takes a global view of witchcraft persecution rather than looking at it just from a European perspective. It’s fascinating and easy to understand.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
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Joanna McAulay
4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 stars!!
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2024
This book shines the light on victims with whom we otherwise would have never heard about and their courage while knowing there was no way to win. You confess. You die. You deny it. You die. No wonder some women falsely confessed. Probably hoped to take some of the heat from other women so the trials would stop.

I loved this book so much. I want it in my library to go back and finish. I couldn’t do it all in one sitting.
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Tamara J. Buchli
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2024
An interesting examination of witch trails throughout history and how they’ve intersected with various -isms, mostly sexism, as we all know, but also racism, ageism, ableism and homophobia.
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Top reviews from other countries

Fee Beris
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic capivating read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2024
Verified Purchase
This book is so clever , consise and factual in such an engaging way , i could not put it down .
If you are interested in witches from history and how witchhunts are still happening then this book is a clear winner .
You must read it !
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Lauri Sim
5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding Reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book is a triumph of research, composition and detail and covers such a vast period of history. It made me laugh and angry in equal measures. Gibson really deepdives into what it means to be called or classed as a witch, and how over 500 years and multiple continents, the notion of what it means to be a witch, to be hunted as a witch and to be trialled as a witch has changed, yet still looms large in the collective consciousness. Gibson's genius is not to simply cover the well worn tales of Berwick and Salem as an example but to bring to light not only fascinating insights into the persecuted figures (Tatabe being a revelation) but how other issues swirl and feed into notions of witchery and trials as societies and time progress, including into the present day, even touching on the phenomeon of 'Witchtok' and it's origins in nineteenth century mystics.
This is an outstanding work and I will be telling everyone I know to read it.
6 people found this helpful
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