Description
Tens of thousands of people were persecuted and put to death as witches between 1400 and 1700 - the great age of witch hunts. Why did the witch hunts arise, flourish and decline during this period? What purpose did the persecutions serve? Who was accused, and what was the role of magic in the hunts? This important reassessment of witch panics and persecutions in Europeand colonial America both challenges and enhances existing interpretations of the phenomenon. Locating its origins 400 years earlier in the growing perception of threats to Western Christendom, Robert Thurston outlines the development of a 'persecuting society' in which campaigns against scapegoats such as heretics, Jews, lepers and homosexuals set the scene for the later witch hunts.
He examines the creation of the witch stereotype and looks at how the early trials and hunts evolved, with the shift from accusatory to inquisitorial court procedures and reliance upon confessions leading to the increasing use of torture.
Author: Robert Thurston
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 12/18/2006
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.87lbs
Size: 7.76h x 5.21w x 1.11d
ISBN13: 9781405840835
ISBN10: 1405840838
BISAC Categories:
- History | Europe | General
- Body, Mind & Spirit | Magick Studies
- History | North American
About the Author
Robert Thurston is Professor of History at the Universityof Miami.
This title is not returnable