Product Description

For many years the European witch craze of the 16th and 17th centuries was considered a subject of almost "bad taste" to study. Then came World War II and a genocide which was the greatest convulsion of evil the world had ever seen. Scholars realized that the witch cult was still with us. This is the story of how a rapidly growing and civilized European nation could turn on itself in a frenzy of violence, and marginalize and kill its own people in a hysteria which became both self-perpetuating and self-justifying; of how otherwise sober and intelligent people could defend this killing, and of how a state could use mass murder as an instrument of state policy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #663176 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 244 pages

Customer Reviews

One of the best works written on Scottish social history.
Having had this book recommended to me during my degree studies I initially borrowed this from my library. However having taken the time to read the book I was sufficiently impressed to go on and purchase a copy.

Simply put this is an excellent work examining one of the most signficant and tragic periods in Scottish history between 1563 and 1736 during which time witchcraft was a crime punishable by death.

Looking not just at a chronology of events, but putting genuine consideration into the factors which could enable a people to permit and indeed advocate the wholesale murder of innocents whether through genuine belief in the supernatural or as a means of control over the lower classes of society. In this respect the book provides a fascinating insight into a phenomena rarely written about outside the boundaries of the Holocaust and the German people during the Second World War.

Thoroughly recommended either as a starting point for students of history or as a fascinating insight into a little discussed field for amateur historians and casual readers alike.