Customer Reviews

Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Witch-Hunt is a solid and fascinating work which encapsulates the facts and theories surrounding the Salem Witch Trials. Aronson begins the book by stating his objective: to correct false information and assumptions that have grown up around the trials (and the events leading up to them). Although this kind of demythologizing does occur, Aronson is more focused on summarizing and comparing the opinions, theories and research of various scholars on why the Salem Witch Trials happened than on battling specific falsehoods.

Aronson leans towards the more rational and psychological explanations for the Salem Witch Trials, but he mentions many others, from the theory that there were truly witches in Salem to the theory that the accusers were entangled in a deliberate conspiracy to defraud their victims.

Aronson's careful presentation of the facts and theories should be applauded, especially his portrayal of the Puritans. Rather than portraying the Puritans as a warped society holding strange beliefs, he works to pull the reader into the Puritan world. The Puritans' beliefs and struggles become real and comprehensible. Aronson demonstrates too that those who spoke out against the trials (and eventually stopped them) were products of the same community and same religious convictions as the accusers.

I highly recommend this book for anyone studying the Salem Witch Trials, before or after reading other material.

I picked this book out of pure curiosity for I have visited Salem, Mass. before and was interested in learning more. I just finished reading it, and I thought it was wonderful. "Witch Hunt" is extremely indepth and detailed account of speculations about the Salem witch trials in 1692. It is very factual, and allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about what they think happened while it discusses popular viewpoints. Not only does this book broaden your knowledge on the topic, but it draws comparisons to the rebellious 1960s and the aftershocks of September 11, 2001. It includes pictures, and quotes from surviving documents from the time.

Very, very good.

Any mention of witches and/or witchcraft, and most teenagers will zero in to see what it's all about. This new and carefully researched book on the Salem witch trails will disappoint neither teens nor adults. Marc Aronson has laid out his material in an easy-to-follow format, dividing the chapters by timeline.

Before the introductory pages, "Note to the Reader" explains that research still does not give us a final answer surrounding the events in 1692 Salem. Aronson asks the reader, aiming his narrative at a teen audience, to think about what might have made the accusers act as they did. After all, he points out, "Many of the accusers were teenagers." He also notes some of the discrepancies, such as the fact that the slave known as Tituba was not black but more likely an Indian. His purpose here is to show that the smallest matters can be crucial in uncovering truth, especially since so much fantasy has surrounded the Salem witch trials.

THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller is examined, as the author spends time building the case of Miller's brilliant fiction against what really lay behind the compelling Salem events. Frequently, Aronson makes flattering reference to Miller and to the many writers who laid the groundwork for his own research. And while he used transcripts of the pretrial hearings, for better understanding, punctuation and spellings were changed.

An index plus notes for cross-referencing make this an excellent reference book. The narrative style is smooth, and teens will find both the subject and writing appealing. Beyond the practical aspects of this work, Aronson has created a fantastic book that illustrates the agony of all the people --- accusers, victims, judges and families --- who were involved in the witch-hunts. This is a must for both high school and public libraries.

--- Reviewed by Sally Tibbetts (...)

I work at a local library and while checking in some new books I discovered this wonderful read, "Witch Hunt." Aronson provided his readers with new speculations about the Salem Witch Trials instead of giving his own opinion. He mainly asks questions to provoke the reader to also questions about their once believed ideas of what "really happened." Unlike some narratives about the witch trials, Aronson clearly keeps the reader entertained and quickly turning the pages. This narrative is a fast read and provides insight on sifting through the facts and myths of what actually happened in 1692.

If you want to only read one book on the Salem Witch Trials this is the book for you. the book is addressed to teens so its a quick and easy read.

this book is a very factual look at a very troubbling and mysteriuos time. there are alot of unawnsered questions that many historians guess at or write about their own personal judgements. the cool thing about this book is that it presents the facts and the theories in a questioning way saying this could have happened this way, etc. it leaves room for the reader to decided for themselves what they want to believe. an excellent book on the subject.

This book is an excellent read for those who want to learn more about the Salem Witch Trials. Marc Aronson describes many of the trials in great detail and contains more than just facts. He tells you what he interprets of his research and gives a great deal of background information, all the while allowing for creative thinking and self-interpretation. The book reveals important characters and plots that may not be mentioned in other books. This book mainly centers on Ann Putnam Jr., whose family has recently suffered a plunge in power and wealth. Even though she is only a teenager, she yearns for the glory that, in her mind, was stolen by the Porter family. Together with a few other girls, she plays the part of the accuser in the huge drama that is the Salem Witch Trials. She singles out at first the unpopular, for they are the easier targets. At trials she screams in agony when the accused does so much as flinch and her friends do the same. But then she accuses people of higher status, such as leaders and even churchmen. It takes a very long time, but after many false accusations, arrests, and hangings, eventually the number of skeptics grows. Ann says a public apology, but never exactly admits to lying. She always avoids the truth by saying it was "a great delusion of Satan." At the very end of the book there is a chapter that explains the fuzzier aspects of the stories. Even though historians know what Ann Putnam Jr. and her supporters did, there are still many mysteries unsolved. There are many dull parts of the book, but most of it is quite interesting. All in all, I say it's a wonderful volume.

I give it four out of five stars.

I know I'm just a kid of twelve, but I have always been interested in the Salem Witch Trials. I found this book at the store one day and it caught my eye. The next day I read it all day. It is the best nonfiction book I have ever read!

I loved this book. I ordered it for an informational book evaluation I was writing for my Youth Literature class, and I read it in, like, two days. It's easy to understand, thought provoking, and of course, just the right amount of creepy to be entertaining as well as informative.

I came across this book when I was given the assignment of writing a paper on the Salem Witch Trials. I really didn't know too much about it and I figured like most books that I used for other research papers, despite how interesting the topic, it'd be boring. Well this book had the unique quality of being both a textbook as well as being interesting enough to almost be a story.

The way this book was written was extremely well done. It gives you the facts and information you need while reading as if it were a story for pleasurable reading. It also strangely, although interestingly,compares the events to some fairy tales which further enhanced the understanding of some of the situations or perspectives of some of the characters.

The only minor downside is that because it does have the quality of both textbook and narratives, there are certain parts that seem to lean too close to the textbook side and thus are very dull.

Still, it's a very good book for both pleasure reading/interests or for research papers. I'd recommend it for high school and even college students since the information is accurate and will no doubt be useful. It's also an easy read and, if you're really into it, could probably finish it in a few days.

If you enjoyed the narrative part of this book I'd highly recommend reading the play The Crucible. It's all about the events that transpired in this book.

The author's note to the reader gave me high expectations. It talked about all the fallacies I might have read and how this book was going to tell me things I had never learned and solve the oft-referred to "mysteries of Salem." I knew quite a bit about the Salem witch trials, so I was curious as to what Aronson could tell me. I was slightly irked at his misuse of the word "occult," however; he made it sound like it is evil, satanic practices, which it most certainly is not. In fact, an occult practitioner from this era would not appear in any books due to the fact that this is when they named themselves the occult. Pagans during the European and Salem witch crazes went into hiding, their religions becoming underground, or "occult." Furthermore, Aronson's language is extremely flowery and dramatic, making it difficult to separate his beliefs in relationship to the events at Salem from what contemporaries believed. His use of rhetorical questions in the reader's note is also over-done and unnecessary.
Then comes the introduction. It is an actual account of a particular trial, that of Goody Carrier. I enjoyed the exchanges, but the author's description between each set was over-done. First, it was in italics. Because this didn't seem melodramatic enough, Aronson described the scene in ridiculous ways: "They are so tormented, it is as if their very bones are being pulled out of their sockets." If he had to use literary devices, he could have been a little more creative. Neither did the descriptions reveal the promised truths; they described the same events I have always read about: accusers having violent fits, the accused denying the claims, then more violent fits. Then does it continue with rhetorical questions already posed, such as, "Why would young people join together to attack someone they hardly, if ever, met, knowing their wails and visions and fits would lead to her death?" If I had wanted this presentation of pseudo-information, I could have read one of the many, far more enjoyable historical fictions on the subject.
The latter half of the introduction does bring in some valid, unique points, however. Aronson compares situations that led to with accusations to popular fairy tales. The story of Sleeping Beauty, he explains, could have really been about an old woman who helped a couple have a child, but because of her appearance, her age, or the means she used to help the couple achieve fertility, she was excluded from the subsequent festivities and as a result got angry. Therefore, readers are siding with the wrong people, with those wrongly accusing others of witchcraft. This is an interesting theory, but given that Sleeping Beauty was written in Germany by two young men after the Enlightenment, it holds little water. Indeed, the moral of the original story is about having to wait over a hundred years for a girl to find the perfect man; the evil old woman was only mentioned when she cursed the child at her christening. Aronson's description of Sleeping Beauty is closer to the Disney version than the Grimm brothers'; therefore, it is nearly irrelevant. Even worse, instead of only stating his theory once, he repeats it several times in different wording. And again does he use melodramatic rhetorical questions, the worst being, "And who better to help bitter people to get revenge than Satan, the Prince of Darkness, the angel whose own envy of God made him try to subvert all creation?" This very vivid description of Satan has little to do with an apparently nasty old woman getting her due.
Then does he describe an event similar to another Grimm tale, that of Cinderella. The event took place in 1671 - another weak point that it had anything to do with the actual story of Cinderella because it wasn't published until at least 1812 in Germany. Worse, the event's description starts out with a clich?: "It might well have been one of those gray, cold New England days when the chill gets into your bones and layers of homespun do little to keep it out. The sky on those days is filled with clouds, and the sun's light is pale and thin. It is a cruel tease, promising warmth it never delivers. At any moment a wind gust can bully you, telling you that coldness is in charge here, winter is the rule." Entirely beside the point. Then the actual story is of a girl under no kind of cruel guardianship who does all the chores because she is grateful that someone would take her in after her parents' deaths. An evil voice offers to do some of her chores. Here, for the first of many instances do we hear of "the Devil's black book" that witches "signed with blood". And somehow, this is supposed to be like a fairy godmother dressing up a downtrodden girl to go to a ball.
An interesting fact, however, was that most of the judges ruled against the accusers, and because England prohibited torture to obtain evidence, so did New England. Also were the traditional tests to prove someone was a witch banned (weighing her with a duck comes to mind). Another intriguing point is that the accused would often fight back with a lawsuit against the accusers, which the accused often won. These facts stray away from the generalization that everyone worked as hard as they could against the accused witches. Also, many of the judges and jurors were reluctant to rule against the accusers out of fear of the mob.
The whole book focuses on possible motives the accusers had for crying, "witch". One was that Cotton Mather, the leading pastor of Salem, sought to hold his grip on the Puritans and strike fear toward undesirable groups. This is mainly when the threat of Native Americans and French Catholics was prominent; the Catholics were likened to bloodthirsty devils. Never, however, was a specific victim a French Catholic, nor did Mather ever accuse anyone in particular. However, one Native American slave was accused. Tituba was thought to have cursed several people, and she denied it until her master encouraged her to lie that she did. This is a common theme that the book points out (and was obvious without even reading the book): confess and you'll be let free. The motive for accusing Tituba was the prominent threat of the Native Americans, and having one in Salem's midst was a manifestation of this fear.
Since a leader in the accusations was Ann Putnam Jr. and the victims somehow related to the Porter family, it is possible that Ann was seeking revenge against the Porters, who robbed the family of their fortune. This makes some sense, but Ann was young when the land argument took place and odds are she did not know enough to have harbored harsh feelings against them. Years after the trials, she sends out an apology for the twenty-five deaths, saying she was "an instrument" of evil. Aronson appears to over-analyze the significance of this word choice. He speculates that Ann could have been told how to act and who to blame, or, as she believed, that Satan - again described as "the Prince of Darkness" and "the father of lies" - could have influenced her. A theme this describes is the human habit to displace blame. No one admitted they were truly at fault and they made the conscious decision to cause harm to others; it was always someone else's fault. Another theory Aronson presents is that because women could not speak freely, pretending to be under the influence of a spell could allow them to get away with speaking out against a minister with whom they did not agree.
Very annoyingly, after chapters and pages of describing all the people involved in the trials, toward the end is a chapter devoted to the accusers' motives. This hearkens to the intended age-level; after reading about various family histories and conflicts, it is very easy for the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. Also, the book rarely introduces new ideas; it mostly rehashes what has already been said, but in different words. Sometimes he Aronson doesn't even both to use new words, but just repeats sentences over throughout the book.
Another bothersome part of the book is the little attention given to the possibility that the accusers really did experience hallucinations. I expected to instantly come across a mention of the fungus ergot, but was disappointed when it did not surface until page 216 and was given only a paragraph. This paragraph did little more than describe the theory then calling it false. I find it highly unlikely that the whole episode revolved around a family with a grudge and a bunch of gullible people jumping on a bandwagon, which is what Aronson claims had happened.
Overall, this book was disappointing. It did not provide me with much more than what I already knew, other than several new, melodramatic epithets for Satan. In truth, the book could have been less than half of its length because of all the repetitive points. Maybe I would have appreciated it more were I a younger reader and perhaps not so passionate about history, but one would think that a man with a PhD in American history could do better than this.