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