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dtab62's review
5.0
One of the most entertaining nonfiction books I've read in a long time. Although it was probably unintentional on the part of the author, Susan Fair, it was hard not to realize that the methods and hysteria surrounding witch hunts are still with us today. It's just that the modern version of "she's a witch" is "he's a racist" or "he's a sexist." Some things never change.
bengriffin's review
3.0
A good reminder that witches didn't start and end with Salem, and that hysteria follows society wherever we go and whenever we live, but it was also too flippant and slight for me to retain much actual information from it at all, and it mostly just washed over me.
katlashw's review
2.0
This was incredibly weak - it had an interesting start but a lack of research, too many jokes, and a lack of inspiration beyond Salem made this a tedious read that I was thrilled to finish.
elysiumdream's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
hollysbookadventure's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.5
I wanted to listen to a niche audiobook while playing harvest moon, and I stumbled across American Witches on audible and decided to give it a chance!
American witches explores the history of witch persecution in America since the pilgrims landed on its shores. It covers hangings on Atlantic voyages, the Salem witch trials, to spititualism.
I thought this book was really interesting! It went into detail about how the treatment of "witches" has evolved over time. From fear and hatred, to paying them. From public court hearings, to public callouts in the papers.
I liked that the book covered the way the fear of witches impacted the local indigenous community. However I wasn't a fan that the book kept referring to them as "Indians", when it was published in 2016. By that point in time the term native American or indigenous was the known preferred term
As someone who has been to Salem MA a million times, it was really great to see more than just that witch hunt covered.
American witches explores the history of witch persecution in America since the pilgrims landed on its shores. It covers hangings on Atlantic voyages, the Salem witch trials, to spititualism.
I thought this book was really interesting! It went into detail about how the treatment of "witches" has evolved over time. From fear and hatred, to paying them. From public court hearings, to public callouts in the papers.
I liked that the book covered the way the fear of witches impacted the local indigenous community. However I wasn't a fan that the book kept referring to them as "Indians", when it was published in 2016. By that point in time the term native American or indigenous was the known preferred term
As someone who has been to Salem MA a million times, it was really great to see more than just that witch hunt covered.
sweetjuly_src's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75