Library's review
Still, it's not her scholarship that turned me off as much as her choices in how to present the material she had to work with. The first three-quarters or more of the book is written as if the accusations were true — she recounts women flying on broomsticks, Satanic baptisms, specters tormenting people while their physical bodies were miles away, and other wild accounts with a straight face and no attempt to explain or put them in context. By the time she finally gets around to examining how the three young girls who started the entire nightmare with their accusations might have come to be afflicted with hysteria, it was too late to redeem the book for me. In my opinion the account would have worked much better if she had interwoven the accusations and the scientific explanations of the phenomena more tightly.
As far as I can tell, Schiff did her homework and presents as much information as is available. She also is very clear not only about what we know, but what we don't know, which I appreciated. Not everyone will find her stylistic choices as off-putting as I did, so if you have an interest in the topic you might well find this book worth your while.
Collections
Description
It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an 80-year-old man crushed to death. The panic spread quickly, involving the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, parents and children each other. Aside from suffrage, the Salem Witch Trials represent the only moment when women played the central role in American history. In curious ways, the trials would shape the future republic.As psychologically thrilling as it is historically seminal, THE WITCHES is Stacy Schiff's account of this fantastical story-the first great American mystery unveiled fully for the first time by one of our most acclaimed historians.… (more)