The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World

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It was amazing to handle English records that William Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, had brought to America in 1630, and which had travelled only a mile in nearly four centuries. That thread of continuity fired my imagination. And when I wasn’t sitting in the archives, I was walking and surveying. Historians should go to the places they write about, and downtown Springfield helps one to visualise a lost world because so much of the modern street plan corresponds to the original layout of home lots and lanes branching off Main Street. Today, Springfield is a big city – but its beginnings were humble and precarious. In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power Gaskill never belittles the experiences of those immersed in witchcraft or passes it off as mere hysteria or hyperbole. Instead, he grounds the strange events and occurrences in the context of the times and expertly dissects the causes and implications of witchcraft.

PRAISE FOR WITCHFINDERS: 'A brilliant new study ... In the vivid three-dimensionality of its dramatis personae, the eloquence of its writing, and the richness of its evocations of vanished worlds of landscape and belief ... Gaskill displays a masterly wizardry all his own.' -- John Adamson - Sunday TelegraphThe subtitle is pretty indicative, and the book seems much more interested in richly detailing life in colonial Springfield and contextualising what we know is coming than going down the easy route of sensationalising a witch trial. The best and most enjoyable kind of history writing. Malcolm Gaskill goes to meet the past on its own terms and in its own place…Thought-provoking and absorbing.”—Hilary Mantel, best-selling author of Wolf Hall W itchcraft in the New England colonies is almost entirely associated in the public imagination with the craze in Salem, Massachusetts, that erupted at the end of the 17th century. Yet on both sides of the Atlantic, prosecutions rarely reached epidemic proportions, with a scattering of cases making it to the courts every few years as long-simmering accusations finally became substantive enough to require the attention of early modern officialdom. The historical detail, the retelling of their daily lives, the events that ran up to this tragic event was quite simply brilliant. And tragically heartbreaking. A bona fide historical classic ... Historical writing of the very highest class, impeccably researched and written with supreme imagination and wisdom. Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

Health Features Could ‘tweakments’ like Botox and filler affect skin health long-term? What the experts want you to know 03:30 At times, this book reads almost like a dark fairytale, but at others it's very fact driven, almost rattled off like a list. This didn't necessarily deter from my enjoyment, but definitely halted the reading process.

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Through the gripping micro-history of a family tragedy, we glimpse an entire society caught in agonized transition between supernatural obsessions and the age of enlightenment. We see, in short, the birth of the modern world. About This Edition ISBN: This book took me a while because I was constantly stopping to underline passages and scribble notes in the margins. There is much of great interest here to anyone fascinated by America's first European settlers and, in particular, the infamous Witch Trials. Life in 1650s Springfield, Massachusetts is far from the Puritan idyll its townspeople might have hoped. Beset by freezing winters and withering summers, smallpox, typhoid and an unfathomably high infant mortality rate, they relied on homespun remedies – “a drink made from boiled toads… powdered sheep’s horn for sores” that to the modern reader might themselves sound like witchcraft. Gaskill presents a compassionate, measured view dispelling several myths along the way. - Independent on Sunday Incredibly detailed . . . with such a convincing voice that the text bears a fictionlike quality.” –Kathleen Townsend, Booklist

In the stark, harsh and unforgiving climate of New England, colonists sought to build a new life for themselves away from the religious persecution and dogmatic rule of Old England. Even on the voyage there they felt pursued by the powers of evil. “Babies’ cauls were prized as talismans against drowning. Red-hot horseshoes were nailed to masts as protection, and stories were heard of alleged witches thrown overboard.” They brought all of these dreads and suspicions with them when they sailed to the New Jerusalem. If you like what you're reading online, why not take advantage of our subscription and get unlimited access to all of Times Higher Education's content?

Comment Ian O’Doherty: Sometimes a good old horror movie is the best escape from this grim world 03:30 Gaskill tells this deeply tragic story with immense empathy and compassion, as well as historical depth' The Guardian To paraphrase part of the sources and methods section at the end of the book, Gaskill has no interest in explaining away witchcraft or in belittling people from the past for their perceived ignorance, instead taking a more emic approach to the phenomena described. The thoughts, feelings and reasonings of historical characters are respected, and taken on their own terms, something I’d argue is essential whenever dealing with anything from the past that doesn’t seem immediately rational to us. This is a non fictional account of witchcraft, and of one case in particular, in mid 17th century New England, in a remote community in Massachusetts. My only previous knowledge of this area and time period comes from accounts of the Salem witch trials and acting in a production of Miller's 'The Crucible'. I mostly think of those horrific events as being the result of bouts of mass hysteria, but Gaskill gives an interesting elaboration on the economic, social and religious factors which contributed to the spate of witch trials that occurred during these decades in both England and the American colonies. The author gives a well judged overview of how large scale transformations in society directly contributed to the extreme actions of individuals. Though people in the small, rapidly-growing communities in New England had to rely on one another there was also a lot of envy and mistrust. Gaskill's research dramatically places us in the psychological mindset of these figures by drawing upon historical records and their testimonies.