Books like Ruin of All Witches by Malcolm Gaskill

This book analyzes the social, psychological, and religious dimensions of a performance piece centered on death and resurrection, drawing on popular culture, shamanism, and the performing arts.

"By spring 1645, two years of civil war had exacted a dreadful toll upon England. People lived in terror as disease and poverty spread, and the nation grew ever more politically divided. In a remote corner of Essex, two obscure gentlemen, Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne, exploited the anxiety and lawlessness of the time and initiated a brutal campaign to drive out the presumed evil in their midst ... Malcolm Gaskill retells the story of the most savage witch-hunt in English history ... Though their campaign was never legally sanctioned, they garnered the popular support of local gentry, clergy, and villagers ... [This story] serves as a reminder of the power of fear and fanaticism to fuel ordinary people's willingness to demonize others"--Dust jacket.

The essays in this handbook, written by leading scholars working in the rapidly developing field of witchcraft studies, explore the historical literature regarding witch beliefs and witch trials in Europe and colonial America between the early fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries. During these years witches were thought to be evil people who used magical power to inflict physical harm or misfortune on their neighbours. Witches were also believed to have made pacts with the devil and sometimes to have worshipped him at nocturnal assemblies known as sabbaths. These beliefs provided the basis for defining witchcraft as a secular and ecclesiastical crime and prosecuting tens of thousands of women and men for this offence. The trials resulted in as many as fifty thousand executions. These essays study the rise and fall of witchcraft prosecutions in the various kingdoms and territories of Europe and in English, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies in the Americas.