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No-Strength-6805 t1_iurf4xd wrote

Reply to comment by mormon_rockwell in Bookclub Wednesday! by AutoModerator

Stacy Schiff a Pulitzer prize winning author and essayist wrote" Witches, Salem,1692" in 2015

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BostonBlackCat t1_iusc8x4 wrote

I loved Stacy Schiff's prize winning Cleopatra biography, and I live in Salem and have read a bunch of trial related books, but I found her "Witches" book very dry and difficult to get through, although it did have some interesting new information regarding some of the accusers and their standing within the community, and how this related to their accusations and those they accused, and how it wasn't necessarily a simple case of accusers = villains and accused = victims. If you had already read a bunch on the trials and were looking for even more exhaustive information, I think "Witches" was worthwhile, but I wouldn't recommend it as a first book to read about the trials.

Personally my favorite book on the trials is Frances Hill's "A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story Of The Salem Witch Trials." I found this to be the best combination of a comprehensive historical overview and readability; I found this book very hard to put down, the opposite of Schiff's. After that I recommend reading "A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience" by Emerson Baker, which looks at the trials in a larger context of early American history and Puritanism.

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TheCapnJP t1_iutlqj2 wrote

I second Bakers A Storm of Witchcraft which gives not only a good overview of the trials but also the general context of the period and potential underlying causes.

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BillBushee t1_iuuh62p wrote

I agree, Witches was a thoroughly detailed book, but exhausting to read.

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