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melissabee's review
4.0
Yes, this is an academic book dense with information, so if you aren't expecting that, it will read as slow. It tells a fascinating story, however. I found the juxtaposition of the witch accusations with trauma from war to be plausible. Norton doesn't bring in actual theories of trauma or PTSD, and the evidence doesn't absolutely allow her to prove her assertion that the authorities on some level used the witch trials to distract from their own incompetence. But again, it's plausible.
ladyonequestion's review
4.0
An interesting approach to a meticulously researched historical account. I think this could have done with more of the author's analysis, but I understand that she wanted to concentrate on the actual historical accounts using sources from the period wherever possible. The graphics were pretty good too, not used to seeing so many visual representations in books of this type, but I think they were very useful.
meiklejohn's review
1.0
Norton's premise is that the witchcraft panic was actually about fear of Indian attacks, and that the Salem authorities were willing to entertain absurd accusations because, if the devil was at work locally, then it wasn't the authorities' fault that Indians were attacking. However, she only lays out this premise clearly in the afterword, and before that writes tedious alternating chapters about the trials and the Indian Wars, without drawing the parallels. Good idea, very poor execution.
koyanqi's review
2.0
2.5/5
Ya. Le tenía mucha fe a este libro porque hace mucho que quería leer sobre este momento horrible de la historia, pero la verdad es que no pude terminarlo. Me decepcionó un poco porque está lleno de datos interesantes narrados de una manera /muy/ aburrida, y al final nunca logré enganchar; y es una pena porque de verdad es un tema muy interesante :< espero encontrar más libros al respecto pero no-tan-fomes.
Ya. Le tenía mucha fe a este libro porque hace mucho que quería leer sobre este momento horrible de la historia, pero la verdad es que no pude terminarlo. Me decepcionó un poco porque está lleno de datos interesantes narrados de una manera /muy/ aburrida, y al final nunca logré enganchar; y es una pena porque de verdad es un tema muy interesante :< espero encontrar más libros al respecto pero no-tan-fomes.
mfreitas's review
2.0
An interesting subject, but after a while reading this book felt more like a chore than a pleasure. The author's a good historian but a mediocre storyteller; Norton never manages to tap into the human drama of the story and thus creates more of a dry catalogue of events than an actual narrative.
lisa_setepenre's review
2.0
There's no doubt that In The Devil's Snare is an informative read or that Mary Beth Norton's hypothesis – that the frontier conflict between Indians and early American colonists fed into the situations that led to the Salem Witch Trials – is worthy of attention, but this just was a tedious read. Part of this is due to the sheer amount of primary sources quoted in the book which are hard to decipher, but part of this is just to down to Norton being able to maintain my interest. The book has been a chore to read and I was supremely glad to finish so I could move on to other, hopefully more enjoyable, reads.
jeremyjsnow's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting read. Her unique thesis, that King William's war created the social circumstances that allowed otherwise normal accusations to spiral into a widespread crisis, was convincing to me. Her prose was dense and difficult at times and at others quite easy.
paperxfaerie's review
3.0
I loved this book because I got to learn so much about a subject that I've always been really interested in. And it seemed like there was a lot of good information in here, everything was very detailed and in depth. I also loved the argument that the atmosphere of the wars is what really set the stage for the trials to blow up the way they did, I think that makes a lot of sense and it's a perspective I didn't know a lot about before.
However this was still not a fun book to read. It felt like a huge information dump, and even though it was interesting information I felt like it wasn't put forth in a very interesting way. It took me a really long time to read this because I was just pushing and struggling through it and there was so much dry information it was really hard to keep track of and get invested in.
However this was still not a fun book to read. It felt like a huge information dump, and even though it was interesting information I felt like it wasn't put forth in a very interesting way. It took me a really long time to read this because I was just pushing and struggling through it and there was so much dry information it was really hard to keep track of and get invested in.
daniwantsalibrary's review
4.0
I REALLY enjoyed this book but oh my goodness it was so friggen dense