Customer Reviews

Disguised as the Devil: How Lyme Disease Created Witches and Changed History

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Salem witches and Lyme's disease...Who would have made this connection???This book is a paradigm shifting work. I can see why it has been controversial. It contains innovative, outside the box thinking. Lyme disease carried back to Europe from North America after 1492 is as good an explanation for the appearance of the Devil's Mark there during the 1500's as any I have read. Meticulously researched, this book adds to the environmental explanations for the persecution of witches, helping to make some of the saddest times in human history more understandable. It shows the events in Salem in 1692 in a new way that compliments pre-existing social theories. It also shows that witch-hunts are not historic relicts pushed into some dusty forgotten corner but still exist as part of the mentality and actions of some members of modern day American society. All in all a scholarly work as well as a good and entertaining read.

Three members of my family in Northern Virginia have been afflicted by Lyme disease. Like so many other sufferers, we have had to educate ourselves to make up for the general lack of knowledge and understanding about Lyme on the part of the medical community. This search for knowledge led me to "Disguised As The Devil: How Lyme Disease Created Witches And Changed History".

Although initially skeptical about Mary Drymon's hypothesis, I finished the book absolutely convinced that she has unearthed a previously unknown connection between Lyme disease and the social and religious phenomena that culminated in the witch trials of the 1600s. In fact, she makes her case so convincingly that it leaves you wondering how this evidence could have been overlooked for nearly 400 years.

If you search online you will find some people who have attacked Ms. Drymon and her book in the general context of "here come the Lyme crazies again". You should ignore these rantings and ravings. This is not how one refutes a work of scholarship. Accepted means of rebuttal include questioning the researcher's methodology and thoroughness, citing contradictory information which may have been overlooked or omitted, even accepting the same sources but interpreting them differently. Resorting to ridicule and name-calling reveals a serious disrespect for the way in which new ideas are proposed, discussed and debated in the world of scholars.

This book is not an easy read. There are entire chapters devoted to the colonists' diet, acorns, pigs, land-use patterns, etc. And you may wonder where all this is leading. Be patient. Ms. Drymon is methodically and systematically creating a preponderance of evidence that make her conclusions all but self-evident.

Whether you ultimately agree or disagree with Ms. Drymon's hypothesis about Lyme disease and witches, you will be astonished at the breadth and depth of her research. Truly a tour-de-force of research and scholarship.

Very interesting book, about a extremely controversial topic: Chronic Lyme Disease. I subscribe to the authors interpretation of history.

This singular book is based on a great intuition: historically, there was a connection between "witchery" and Lyme disease. The author is competent and very knowledgeable about the topic. A voyage through science, history and superstition.

This gave a perspective that I would never have imagined. But it makes sense ... Also gives researched dates, places and people ... with comments about their smptoms ... which all sound like lyme, but were blamed as being a witch.

The idea of this book is intriguing. I do believe that some, if not all, of the people who were accused of witchcraft in the early years of this country did, in fact, have Lyme disease. The author clearly did a lot of research and I don't think the connections she's making are far-fetched at all. That said, the book is in major need of a good editor. It's disorganized, the writing style varies from chapter to chapter, and it's poorly proofread. I had to stop myself from pulling out a red pen and circling all of the awkward bits as I was reading. It's too bad because I think there's a good book in there somewhere. If you can get past all of that (and the cover art), then go ahead and read it, as the author does propose some fascinating things.

This book is clearly well researched. But frankly, it reads like a Doctoral Dissertation (that is, boring) written by someone with an axe to grind. There are many examples of the author's bias against the medical establishment, the FDA, and the pharmaceutical industry. While some of these examples may be valid, they detract from the subject at hand. If you are interested in reading an unobjective, boring Doctoral Dissertation about a topic that could be expounded on in a beautiful, relevant, and enlightening way, read this book. If no, wait for someone else to write that good book I was hoping to read.