Books by Chadwick Hansen
Witchcraft at Salem
by Chadwick Hansen
First released in 1969, Witchcraft at Salem was one of the first of a new wave of scholarly books on the subject of the Salem Witch Trials. Chadwick Hansen, then a professor at the University of Illinois, offered a reappraisal of the prevailing assumption that those executed were victims of a mass hysteria, arguing that witchcraft was widely practiced in 1690s Salem, and that—according to the culture of the time—"there was every reason to regard [this alleged witchcraft] as a criminal offense."
Richard Trask, historian and town archivist for Danvers (the Massachusetts town formerly known as Salem Village), told Five Books that Chadwick's book "was and is filled with original insights. I believe it a pioneering work."
Interviews where books by Chadwick Hansen were recommended
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1
The Witches: Salem, 1692
by Stacy Schiff -
2
A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience
by Emerson W. Baker -
3
Witchcraft at Salem
by Chadwick Hansen -
4
The Crucible
by Arthur Miller -
5
I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem
by Maryse Condé -
6
Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt
ed. Bernard Rosenthal
Books About the Salem Witch Trials
Books About the Salem Witch Trials
In 1692-3 in Salem Village, Massachusetts, a widespread moral panic resulted in nearly 200 residents being accused of practicing witchcraft. In the end, 20 of them were executed. Since then, the name Salem has been associated with paranoia, betrayal and religious extremism, and the Salem Witch Trials have served as the inspiration for many books, both fiction and nonfiction.
