Salem Possessed

Salem Possessed PDF Author: Paul Boyer
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674282663
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Tormented girls writhing in agony, stern judges meting out harsh verdicts, nineteen bodies swinging on Gallows Hill. The stark immediacy of what happened in 1692 has obscured the complex web of human passion, individual and organized, which had been growing for more than a generation before the witch trials. Salem Possessed explores the lives of the men and women who helped spin that web and who in the end found themselves entangled in it. From rich and varied sources—many previously neglected or unknown—Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum give us a picture of the events of 1692 more intricate and more fascinating than any other in the already massive literature on Salem. “Salem Possessed,” wrote Robin Briggs in The Times Literary Supplement, “reinterprets a world-famous episode so completely and convincingly that virtually all the previous treatments can be consigned to the historical lumber-room.” Not simply a dramatic and isolated event, the Salem outbreak has wider implications for our understanding of developments central to the American experience: the breakup of Puritanism, the pressures of land and population in New England towns, the problems besetting farmer and householder, the shifting role of the church, and the powerful impact of commercial capitalism.

Salem Possessed

Salem Possessed PDF Author: Paul Boyer
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674282663
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book

Book Description
Tormented girls writhing in agony, stern judges meting out harsh verdicts, nineteen bodies swinging on Gallows Hill. The stark immediacy of what happened in 1692 has obscured the complex web of human passion, individual and organized, which had been growing for more than a generation before the witch trials. Salem Possessed explores the lives of the men and women who helped spin that web and who in the end found themselves entangled in it. From rich and varied sources—many previously neglected or unknown—Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum give us a picture of the events of 1692 more intricate and more fascinating than any other in the already massive literature on Salem. “Salem Possessed,” wrote Robin Briggs in The Times Literary Supplement, “reinterprets a world-famous episode so completely and convincingly that virtually all the previous treatments can be consigned to the historical lumber-room.” Not simply a dramatic and isolated event, the Salem outbreak has wider implications for our understanding of developments central to the American experience: the breakup of Puritanism, the pressures of land and population in New England towns, the problems besetting farmer and householder, the shifting role of the church, and the powerful impact of commercial capitalism.

SALEM POSSESSED

SALEM POSSESSED PDF Author: Paul Boyer
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674282655
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Tormented girls writhing in agony, stern judges meting out harsh verdicts, nineteen bodies swinging on Gallows Hill. The stark immediacy of what happened in 1692 has obscured the complex web of human passion which climaxed in the Salem witch trials From rich and varied sources—many neglected and unknown—Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum give us a picture of the people and events more intricate and more fascinating than any other in the massive literature. It is a story of powerful and deeply divided families and of a community determined to establish an independent identity—beset by restraints and opposition from without and factional conflicts from within—and a minister whose obsessions helped to bring this volatile mix to the flash point. Not simply a dramatic and isolated event, the Salem outbreak has wider implications for our understanding of developments central to the American experience: the disintegration of Puritanism, the pressures of land and population in New England towns, the problems besetting farmer and householder, the shifting role of the church, and the powerful impact of commercial capitalism.

Salem Possessed

Salem Possessed PDF Author: Paul Boyer
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674785267
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
A study of the Puritan village and the people involved in the witch trials of 1692 provides insight into the causes and implications of this notorious episode in American history.

Salem Story

Salem Story PDF Author: Bernard Rosenthal
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521558204
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Salem Story engages the story of the Salem witch trials by contrasting an analysis of the surviving primary documentation with the way events of 1692 have been mythologised by our culture. Resisting the temptation to explain the Salem witch trials in the context of an inclusive theoretical framework, the book examines a variety of individual motives that converged to precipitate the witch-hunt. Of the many assumptions about the Salem witch trials, the most persistent is that they were instigated by a circle of hysterical girls. Through an analysis of what actually happened - by perusal of the primary materials with the 'close reading' approach of a literary critic - a different picture emerges, one where 'hysteria' inappropriately describes the logical, rational strategies of accusation and confession followed by the accusers, males and females alike.

The Witches

The Witches PDF Author: Stacy Schiff
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316200611
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra, the #1 national bestseller, unpacks the mystery of the Salem Witch Trials. It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an elderly man crushed to death. The panic spread quickly, involving the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, parents and children each other. Aside from suffrage, the Salem Witch Trials represent the only moment when women played the central role in American history. In curious ways, the trials would shape the future republic. As psychologically thrilling as it is historically seminal, THE WITCHES is Stacy Schiff's account of this fantastical story-the first great American mystery unveiled fully for the first time by one of our most acclaimed historians.

Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem

Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem PDF Author: Elaine G. Breslaw
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814713076
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Tituba, a young house servant from the West Indies, allegedly influenced and encouraged occult activities among teenage girls in 17th century Massachusetts, which led to the infamous witch hunts of Salem. This book offers "an imaginative reconstruction of what might have been Tituba's past".--TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT. "A valuable probe of how myths can feed hysteria".--THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD. 15 photos.

Salem-village Witchcraft

Salem-village Witchcraft PDF Author: Paul S. Boyer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Salem (Mass.)
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description


America Bewitched

America Bewitched PDF Author: Owen Davies
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199578710
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
The first major history of witchcraft in America - from the Salem witch trials of 1692 to the present day.

Satan & Salem

Satan & Salem PDF Author: Benjamin C. Ray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813939926
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This book looks beyond single-factor interpretations to offer a far more nuanced view of why the Salem witch-hunt spiraled out of control. Rather than assigning blame to a single perpetrator, Ray assembles portraits of several major characters, each of whom had complex motives for accusing his or her neighbors. In this way, he reveals how religious, social, political, and legal factors all played a role in the drama.

The Witchcraft of Salem Village

The Witchcraft of Salem Village PDF Author: Shirley Jackson
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0307779882
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Stories of magic, superstition, and witchcraft were strictly forbidden in the little town of Salem Village. But a group of young girls ignored those rules, spellbound by the tales told by a woman named Tituba. When questioned about their activities, the terrified girls set off a whirlwind of controversy as they accused townsperson after townsperson of being witches. Author Shirley Jackson examines in careful detail this horrifying true story of accusations, trials, and executions that shook a community to its foundations.