Product Description

Witches and Neighbours is a highly original and unconventional analysis of a fascinating historical phenomenon. Unlike other studies of the subject which focus on the mechanisms of persecution, this book presents a rich picture of witchcraft as an all–pervasive aspect of life in early modern Europe.

This book is not available from Blackwell in the United States and the Philippines.

• A fascinating and accessible account of the central role of witchcraft in early modern Europe.
  
• A standard work on the subject of witchcraft now available in a revised edition with an updated bibliography.
  
• Presents an unconventional interpretation of the role and influence of witchcraft
  
• Argues that witchcraft was as complex and changing as the society of which it formed a vital part.
  
• Draws on a range of original sources to vividly illustrate the arguments.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #117201 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
"In this learned and meticulously researched book, Robin Briggs lays to rest many of the modern myths about the witch craze, without in any way diminishing its horror... Briggs skilfully shows how the myths of witchcraft were linked with fundamental human experiences of pain and anxiety... Lucid and important." Karen Armstrong, The Times

"Briggs provides a fascinating psychological insight into the ideological system that produced the trials. To understand them within their own historical context, he argues, is to realize that a belief in the witches′ power was neither irrational nor absurd... the evidence from this compelling book suggests that human actions are far more determined by irrational fears than our social selves are willing to accept." Julia Wheelwright, New Statesman

"I salute [Briggs′s] rigorous and thoughtful scholarship." James Morrow, The Guardian

From the Back Cover
Witches and Neighbours is a highly original and unconventional analysis of a fascinating historical phenomenon. Unlike other studies of the subject which focus on the mechanisms of persecution, this book presents a rich picture of witchcraft as an all–pervasive aspect of life in early modern Europe.

Robin Briggs combines recent research with his own investigations to produce a brilliant and compelling account of the central role of witchcraft in the past. Although the history of witchcraft can only be studied through records of persecutions, these reveal that trials were unusual in everyday life and that witchcraft can be viewed as a form of therapy. Witchcraft was also an outlet and expression of many fundamental anxieties of society and individuals in a time when life was precarious. The book argues that witchcraft – its belief and persecutions – cannot be explained by general causes but was as complex and changing as the society of which it formed a vital part.

Since its original publication in 1996, this book has become the standard work on the subject of witchcraft. It now appears in a revised edition with an updated bibliography.

This book is not available from Blackwell in the United States and the Philippines.

About the Author
Robin Briggs is Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford where he has worked since his election as Prize Fellow in 1964. He was educated at Felsted School and Balliol College, Oxford and he is the author of The Scientific Revolution of the Seventeenth Century (1970), Early Modern France (2nd Edition 1998), and Communities of Belief: Cultural and Social Tensions in Early Modern France (1989).

Customer Reviews

Comprehensive look at witchcraft
In 'Witches and Neighbours', Robin Briggs provides a wider picture of witchcraft rather than just concentrating on the trials and persecution of supposed witches. He starts by looking at the definition of witchcraft, something that is not often approached in other books of this type.
From there, the book studies topics such as the gender issue. It is commonly assumed that witches are usually female but the author dispels that myth and provides statistical evidence showing 25% of accused or executed witches in Europe were in fact male. He goes on to discuss witchfinders and witch cures, the influence of enmity between neighbours/kin that could lead to false accusations and addresses the issue of mental illness, a topic that is often ignored in other studies of this subject. A well written conclusion pulls all this information together.
As would be expected from a book of this type, an extensive bibliography and list of further reading is included. Although this book can be a little heavy going at times, it is an invaluable sourcebook for undergraduates studying history and probably one of the best to be found on this subject.

The best book on the history of witchcraft there is.
This utterly enthralling book gives the most clear and lucid account of the history of witchcraft. It shows how erroneous are many of the current beliefs about witchcraft, like for instance the common belief that only women were persecuted as witches (overall, about 20% were men). Also the numbers of people put to death have been wildly exaggerated, soemtimes given as several million, whereas Briggs clearly shows that the most likey number was about 40,000. Far from being a case of women being terrorised by male accusers, it seems that most of the accusers in withccraft cases were actually women themselves. This book is packed with fascinating information, and is gripping from beginning to end.

The actual records of witch hunts speak
Briggs gives one of the sanest, most carefully documented accounts to date of Europe's witch hunts. Tracing local records across many nations focuses the locale, duration, and scope of the main witch-hunting episodes. Briggs studies what kinds of people were accused of evil, how the whole notion of evil varied, and how the persecutions developed. The reliance on records of specific individuals brings the whole process to light in an understandable way -- in the course of interrogations one accusation led to the next. According to trial records in Lorraine, Georgeatte Didier threatened that if she was accused, "she would accuse others whether they were good women or not". Mengeotte Lausson said that if she was burned, she would denounce her husband's sister Toussaine as well. Chrestaille Wathot said if she was arrested, "I would accuse such important people of witchcraft that they would release me for the love of them". (p. 361) Yet nearby communities were unaffected, because the neighbours refrained from labeling each other as evil.

Such periodic storms of fear are all the more disturbing when we are introduced to the people involved.