![]() ![]() Because of incomplete information - scant records were kept of any of the legal proceedings - we can, to a degree, only guess at answers. ![]() The historical moment "The Witches" attempts to elucidate is an epistemological nightmare: during a strange period in 1692, a New England town put its own citizens to death over hearsay-based accusations of witchcraft. The story of Salem seems so familiar, which is what makes it ultimately so strange.Įverybody thinks they know a little bit about the Salem witch trials, but Schiff's book demonstrates that nobody can possibly know everything. It says something about the archetypal nature of the trials - as riveting to Salem residents as reality TV is to contemporary audiences - that one of the best ways to evoke the proceedings is by referencing our shared cultural memory. Sometimes Schiff brings it up explicitly, as when she tosses off a reference to Harry Potter or when she compares certain malevolent spirits to James Bond villains. For a book about the 1600s, Stacy Schiff's "The Witches," an exhaustive history of the Salem witch trials, calls to mind a surprising amount of contemporary popular culture. ![]()
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