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the_magic_bookstar's review
4.0
Very good and should be read by every person with a deep interest for the trials. But not for the faint of heart as it goes into lots of detail
qnawal97's review
3.0
It was alright but felt unnecessarily detailed about everything surrounding the actual trials itself, I think this cured my hyperfixation on reading about the Salem Witch Trials because towards the end I was just skimming to finish...
msflameo's review
challenging
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
2.75
The author speculates way too much and therefore it reads as a theory verses facts. There are facts, but there's a lot of claims with no source cited too. I was not impressed.
popcorndiva's review
3.0
DNF.
I really should have loved this. The Salem Witchcraft Trials have also been immensely fascinating to me and the fact that this book was framed in a historical/feminist context was very intriguing. However, I just could not finish this. The way that it was written was hard to follow. I appreciate the extensive background information on each person, but it really turned into information overload. I almost feel like I needed to take notes as I read to keep everyone and their family history straight.
Clearly Norton is well educated on the subject and she has a lot of important things to say, but it was just too dense for me. I'd like to pick this one back up in the future, but I will definitely approach it more as a textbook type reading than a typical non-fiction.
I really should have loved this. The Salem Witchcraft Trials have also been immensely fascinating to me and the fact that this book was framed in a historical/feminist context was very intriguing. However, I just could not finish this. The way that it was written was hard to follow. I appreciate the extensive background information on each person, but it really turned into information overload. I almost feel like I needed to take notes as I read to keep everyone and their family history straight.
Clearly Norton is well educated on the subject and she has a lot of important things to say, but it was just too dense for me. I'd like to pick this one back up in the future, but I will definitely approach it more as a textbook type reading than a typical non-fiction.
mezzosherri's review
4.0
An impeccably-researched and well-argued analysis of the Salem Witch Trials--or, more accurately, the witch hysteria and crisis that spread across Essex County MA during 1692. Norton persuasively places the witchcraft crisis in its socio-historical context: specifically, conflicts with French colonists and the Abenaki Tribe over territories and fur trade in Maine. I find Norton's thesis and analysis to be quite sound and extensively supported by detail. A such, I highly recommend the book with one caveat: it is a dense, almost academic, tome, and therefore may not be to everyone's taste.
bibliocat08's review
Interesting insights but she needs to go back to the drawing board. See my 8 page paper from History 300
makeminemonsters's review
challenging
informative
tense
slow-paced
4.25
I appreciated how thorough Norton's account of the Salem Witch Trials was - not merely quoting from the judges, accused, accusers, and onlookers, but also bringing in other documents to contextualize the time period for the readers. I thought she made a strong point that both King Philip's and King William's Wars should be considered in any analysis of the witch trials, though I think sometimes the parallels she drew between the trauma of those wars and the testimony of the accused were somewhat tenuous. However, her general thesis is solid - the Salem Witch Trials did not occur in a vacuum and to understand them, we need to look at the world beyond Salem Village and Salem Town.
oeufmily's review
3.0
as a narrative, this kind of flops. but as a history book, it’s some of the best history i’ve ever read. meticulous work. attention to detail. it’s not as exciting as the crucible, but it does give you a nuanced look at a community on the brink in seventeenth-century new england. i wish the francophobia/antipopery angle was fleshed out more, but that would have made this book even LONGER, so i’ll give MBN a pass on that one. i can’t believe i read books like this every week in grad school. i guess that’s what i get for not skimming this!!