"History in the hands of Stacy Schiff is invariably full of life, light, shadow, surprise, clarity of insight, and so it is again and then some in her latest work, The Witches. There are a dizzying number of characters and accusations in the scandal as just about everyone in the area was implicated or "afflicted." Yet by the end, my only complaint was that I still wanted more of Schiff's immersive tale and accompanying insights. But also how the initial accusations might not have sounded impossible narrated as fact, as it would have been in the courtroom, we can almost suspend disbelief of a flying broomstick. But Schiff helps us understand how that could happen - how a few manipulative (or evil, or power hungry, or, ok, just crazy) people's actions can spiral out of control. From our perspective, these people just seemed to go crazy. Settlers were fighting for scarce resources (firewood), kidnapping and scalping by native tribes was a real threat, the religious extremism of the colony imposed draconian personal rules, and 1692 had seen years without a governmental charter. It was a time almost 100 years before the birth of our country, when, we are told, the entire population of New England could have fit into Yankee Stadium. The Witches does a remarkable job of transporting the reader back to 17th century Salem.
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