A review by meiklejohn
In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton

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.