Enemy Within : A Short History of Witch-Hunting

by Demos, John (Author)

• ISBN13: 9780143116332
• ISBN10: 0143116339
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-29
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Summary

With the vision of a historian and the voice of a novelist, prize–winning author John Demos explores the social, cultural, and psychological roots of the scourge that is witch-hunting, both in the remote past and today. The Enemy Within chronicles the most prominent witch-hunts of the Western world—women and men who were targeted by suspicious neighbors and accused of committing horrific crimes by supernatural means—and shows how the fear of witchcraft has fueled recurrent cycles of accusation, persecution, and purging. A unique and fascinating book, it illumines the dark side of communities driven to rid themselves of perceived evil, no matter what the human cost.

Author Biography

John Demos is Samuel Knight Professor of History at Yale University and the foremost scholar of early American witchcraft. He is the author of Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England and The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Prologue	p. i
Europe	p. 5
Martyrs of Lyons: A Story from the Beginning	p. 7
Witch-hunting Panorama, 150-1750	p. 14
The Malleus Maleficarum: A Book and Its Travels	p. 62
Early America	p. 71
Windsor, Connecticut, 1654: A Town Entertaining Satan	p. 73
Witch-hunting in the American Colonies, 1607-92	p. 80
Mary Parsons: A Life Under Suspicion	p. 131
Salem	p. 141
Rebecca Nurse: A "Witch" and Her Trials	p. 143
The Most Famous Witch-hunt of All, 1692-93	p. 157
The Reverend Cotton Mather: A Minister and His Demons	p. 216
Modern America	p. 229
Anti-Masonry: A Politics of Panic	p. 231
Saga of Scares, 1700-2000	p. 241
Fells Acres Day School: A Question of Abuse	p. 282
Epilogue	p. 293
Bibliographic Commentary	p. 297
Index of Names	p. 309
General Index	p. 315
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