This is a unique book, and very interesting. It starts with the Witch Hunts, but continues on through today. Mona's deep look is a look at how the same types on women are still persecuted even today. This is a fascination and interesting read.

This book traces the progression of patriarchal attacks on female power, from the European witch hunts to the present day. It's a fascinating and informative text, engaging and easy to read.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advance digital galley, in exchange for an honest review. Of note--this was the first time I was actually invited to download a book by the publisher, so I was eager to do so!

In Defense of Witches has an interesting thesis, noted in its subtitle “The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial”. The them is essentially that the witch hunts were all about society’s (men’s) efforts to control women, and misogyny that continues today exists as remnants of those efforts. The book examines this on several levels, in different areas—historically, socially, in the workplace, in specific fields—making many valid, well-documented points.

The first two chapters focus heavily on when women choose not to have children and how society treats this choice. The third looks at the differences between how men and women age, or how society treats them differently as they age. These sections were clear, organized, focused on the topics. I was occasionally reminded that the book was written and published in Europe, as it would refer to resources in French, and mention how things were in America.

The fourth chapter confused me. It began very much in the first person, and I wasn’t quite sure what message the author was trying to get across (although it did suggest some authors and works that I have since added to my reading list). It seemed to address a potpourri of topics that the author did not want to leave out, including the relationship between women and the natural world, women’s place in academia, women’s place in medicine and how women are treated by the medical profession, and archetypes.

And then the book ended—this further confused me, because my electronic version showed me at 66%, and I was expecting more of a conclusion, but the remainder was footnotes.

So, to conclude, this book gave me a lot to think about—if I had had a hard copy, I expect that it would now be full of highlighted sections and notes in margins. I believe it will probably find a home in women’s studies classrooms. It definitely has a lot to say—perhaps it tried to say a little too much?

In Defense of Witches was well researched, informative and thought provoking. Witches have always had a unfair reputation, and have often been persecuted in modern society. The author does a fantastic job of showing the ways that women still face oppression today. I definitely recommend this book, it is very impactful.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange of my honest opinion.

In Defense of Witches is one of the best books non-fiction books I’ve read in years. This is not lighthearted fare but a well researched, seriously deep dive into the social conditioning of/surrounding women and how we’re perceived, treated, expected to behave/live our lives, etc…The ways we’re conditioned to consider the (mis)treatment of women are so pervasive that we often don’t even notice/acknowledge them consciously until they’re spelled out for us…and this book SPELLS IT OUT in an unflinchingly honest way that you can’t ignore or unsee, and I think that’s so important and necessary.

The section on motherhood was especially poignant for me and brought up a lot of intense emotions. I think so many women will find it so relatable, it gives words and life to emotions/feelings/thoughts so many of us have about our experiences that we feel obligated to politely ignore or suppress. I can’t even begin to count how many sections I highlighted, how many times my eyes filled with tears, or how many times I screamed UGHHHH YESS! in my head while reading this book. This should honestly be a must-read for every female identifying person, and probably everyone else besides as well. I will absolutely be recommending it to all the women in my life and making sure my own daughter reads it when she’s older.
Thank you so much to St Martins Press for providing me with this eARC.

I absolutely adored this book! A fantastic combination of historical context paired with contemporary commentary, In Defense of Witches lays bear the forces of misogyny and white male supremacy that have shaped so much of our self-understanding and culture today. This is a must-read.

I enjoyed reading In Defense of Witches as much as doing so infuriated me. This is an impeccably researched historical account of how the witch archetype has been around for centuries and continues to be used to manipulate and control women.

Such an important and mind blowing book. Mona Chollet puts the Witch as the idea behind (some cases of) misogyny in an impeccable way, so grateful for her "obsessive" research.

There were some points that I of course already knew of since I'm not new to feminists text, but I've never thought about witches, and the massacre that men did with them, being the origin of these problems. My favourite chapter was the one connected with motherhood and I think I highlighted everything. When I finish the book, i really wanted another chapter because of how immersed I was, it was really approachable and the traduction was really easy to read but at the same time eloquent. Would love to buy this book for my mom, reading about this and how much it hurts women is a thing, but seeing it in person is heartbreaking and I know she would love and appreciate this book as much as i did. Hope my self of the future reads this again and remembers how important this is.

This is an in depth examination of the persecution of witchcraft and its effects on the modern ways in which women encounter discrimination.

A dense read, but that is primarily because of the academic nature of the writing. There is a lot of very interesting information spread over a wide variety of chapter subjects. And it was fascinating to get more on the witch trials outside of the United States.

I expected the parallels between the reprisals against witchcraft and the restraints against women to stretch through the entire book. Instead, most of the pertinent and thoughtful connections exist in the introduction, and the rest of the book contains only minor notes about witchcraft. For example, in the chapter on women’s aging, the book mentions that gray hair was often associated with witches. And then the text moves on.

While there is the occasional mention of the impact of race, class, or transness on the persecution in the book, there is not as much examination of intersectionality as there I wanted. There are small mentions, including the story of Tituba, a black slave accused of witchcraft in Salem, MA. But some chapters have nothing, most noticeably where it would have been relevant. The chapter on childbirth and motherhood takes no time to address that black women are at greater risk of maternal death than other ethnicities.

The fact is, while this book has a lot of fantastic information, it tries to do too much, with chapters on aging, healthcare, relationships, motherhood, and environmentalism. And the common thread of witchcraft is not as interwoven throughout the text as it could have been.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advance reader’s copy.

Nonfiction books about witches typically fall into two categories - the historical horrors of trials and executions or 21st century witchcraft guides for the modern practitioner. In Defense of Witches is something altogether different in its universality and resonance and application. While this book covers significant historical ground, the modern day context is not meant to serve as a how-to guide, but rather as a deep and nuanced exploration of the myriad ways women continue to live in a society shaped by centuries-old societal and cultural norms, misogyny, and fear. "We are the granddaughters of the witches you weren't able to burn," and yet we continue to live out the sentence in many ways, both veiled and overt. Scholarly yet accessible, In Defense of Witches opens with the invitation to envision the first witch who captured our attention. For me, it was Glinda from The Wizard of Oz, and later Samantha of the television show Bewitched - and still later Gillian from Bell, Book, and Candle. Magical, dynamic, beautiful, smart, and usually with a cat around. Those characters would shape my perceptions about witches - and inform my own development in profound ways. The conclusion of this book is a powerful reminder of our own agency and potent to call to action to harness the "joy of audacity" in shaping a new legacy - one of humanity, equity, harmony with nature, and "the untrammeled enjoyment of our bodies and our minds." So mote it be.

Chollet, a Swiss journalist and author living and working in France, first published this book as Sorcières in French in 2018. This is its first English translation and is important for U.S. audiences' understanding of the European historical references vs. contextualized vis a vis Salem or the like.

I received a digital pre-publication copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and I'll be including it in a TBR round-up for Women's History Month in March.

In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Chollet is an intriguing read and a powerhouse of information. Many people are aware of the Salem Witch Trials, not the reign of terror that swept Europe for centuries and claimed thousands of women's lives. In Defense of Witches looks at not only the sordid history of the burning of innocent women accused of being witches in Salem and elsewhere, but establishes how that history is still influential today.

Mona Chollet brings us a deeply feminist perspective on how women are perceived and persecuted by society when they choose a path that doesn't follow the strict societal norms imposed on women by men. She claims that the concept of a witch is born from women who choose not to marry, who are skilled in "powers" such as healing and childbirth, who choose not to have children and who choose not to conform to limitations that are expected as one ages. Her book is dense and filled with many examples connecting the stereotype of a "witch" to intelligent, ambitious, unmarried childless women. Definitely an interesting read, but much of her ideas are presented in the Introduction so the rest of the book felt like it dragged on a bit to me.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance reader's e-copy of the English translation of this book. The English translated version will be available on 3/8/2022. The French version was published in 2018.

I highly recommend strongly that all women and young girls read this body of work. The author examines the archetype under our patrichael misogynist culture of the moniker "Witch" when referring to independent, , successful, talented, widowed or solitary women .

The author delves into the past used to vilify and murder independent women, widows and elderly women throughout our culture and still today. As the author moves through the times we see how in today's culture independent single women,, our elderly women and successful women who prefer to live on on their own are vilified by mysogany and hate of women that permeates our lives, the media and culture. I appreciate the detail and case studies the author has inclusive here to mysogany.

The author presents us the facts of over 100,000 single, widowed and elderly women have been murdered over time labeled as "Witches" to justify their deaths. Today women are still being murdered in Africa labeled as "Witches". Entire generations of women have been murdered in the US and in Europe. . In the US today most people are ignorant to the witch trials that took place in Europe. In the US women are now attacked in the media, openly in our culture by the misogynist hate . The independent women choosing to be childless, or live alone are under attack in their careers and personal lives. The elderly woman is ridiculed in the media and used to glorify the "witch" moniker by misogynist. As a elderly woman I myself have been called a "Witch" by many young people in public simply for existing. No woman standing on her own two feet and living independent of the "misogynist ideal" is safe from scrutiny and ridicule. It is this level of hate and attack on women that exist openly today that we women must educate ourselves against and stand against. The author speaks to the women that read this book and empowers us all .
This is a must read for all women and young women. It is a important body of work that speaks to our survival under this male oriented patrichael society. Very well done and a book i highly recommend for all women.

I was very excited to read this book. The subject of witch trials and how women who have broken the norms have always been persecuted has always interested me, plus I grew up in New England, so the Salem Witch Trials have always lurked in the back of my conscience. I was therefore excited to see what this European perspective would bring. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped to.
This book is not so much a chronological view of how witch trials started and then watching those issues morph over time, but a treatise on feminist issues that occasionally reference how these issues are still treated as a kind of witch hunt. To me, Chollet needed to refer back to her thesis more often in order to tie her points together.
In addition, the way her chosen topics were treated didn't always achieve her desired effect. I especially encountered problems when Chollet discussed medicine and the unfair treatment and downright abuse women sometimes receive from doctors. Although those issues are important and need to be reformed, because I am someone who luckily has never experienced such abuse, all it did was scare me and send my anxiety through the roof. Her metaphor of how mercantilism changed our view of the earth as a woman to be gathered from with caution to a woman's body being raped by mining and deforestation was also a bit shaky. In her evidence of people's misuse of Earth's resources, she said "...the new commercial frenzy demanded unheard-of quantities of wood for building wharves, bridges, locks, barges and ships, but also for the production of soap, beer barrels, and to make glass" (167). While I agree this began contributing to climate change, is soap to be despised? Therefore, while I agree with some of her points, I think she got a bit carried away at times.
Something that is not Chollet's fault but worked against my reading of this book was the time at which it was published. I think this book would have felt far more potent if I had read it in 2018 when it was originally published. The anger at the Trump administration and the power of the women's marches would have made far more of an impact than it does today, four years afterwards.
Overall, this book brings up important points, but I think it could have been executed better.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Part of my brain calls this a lit review featuring media - but it's so much more, and wonderfully, complexly so. Chollet takes three themes/types of women: childless, elderly and those who exercise some control over "nature" when it comes to fertility and childbirth and explains these themes as they relate to so-called witchcraft. The loaded meaning of witch hunt is especially poignant in these last five years as American society has become even more polarized. How dare you exercise some control over what society believes is right, and in some ways it's shameful that she has to write this 50 years after Ms. Magazine.

This is a dense read, well researched and footnoted, but don't expect to get through it quickly. There are definitely chapters I intend to re -read for deeper understanding.

Mona Chollet discusses the witch archetypes that are still attacked by the patriarchy today: the Independent Woman, the Childless Woman, and the Elderly Woman. All of these women are attacked by the patriarchy because they don’t uphold some value of the patriarchy or sometimes even attack certain aspects of it. This book covers the history of each one, how the patriarchy censors and/or attacks them, and how they’re wrapped up in modern feminism. The continued persecution of women who fall into these archetypes show society’s eternal misogyny.

This book is heavier on the feminism aspect than the witchcraft aspect so if you’re coming into this looking more for the history of witchcraft, there are other books that will do this better. While it does discuss it, it is predominantly in the introduction. However, as someone who is two of these three archetypes, and with each year growing closer to the third, this book was interesting, but at times not exactly eye opening. I’ve experienced some of the passive-aggressive commentary myself, thankfully not from my family.

The great thing is that Chollet doesn’t solely focus on white women. Her research is intersectional, but it still could have done more. However, I can just appreciate that she did branch out a bit. I would be curious to see what BIPOC readers think about this book, but I haven’t been able to find enough reviews of it (at least in English).

Overall, I found this to be really interesting. Looking at how the witch hunts have evolved over time to something that is more subtle, but equally pervasive, and in some ways even more menacing is interesting. I think this would make a great read for book clubs, especially for women, however, I would be equally interested in seeing what men come away with. All in all I would say give it a read if it sounds interesting. Also, it appears longer than it actually is, 40% of the kindle version I have is Chollet’s extensive list of sources.

Thank you, NetGalley, Mona Chollet, and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this book. It releases on March 8th, 2022.

“By wiping out entire families, by inducing a reign of terror and by pitilessly oppressing certain behaviors and practices that had come to be seen as unacceptable, the witch-hunts contributed to the shaping the world we live in now. Had they not occurred, we would probably be living in very different societies.”

IN DEFENSE OF WITCHES
It always amazed me how many people in America were only aware of the Salem Witch Trials, not the reign of terror that swept Europe for centuries, that claimed the lives of thousands of women. Not only that, they don’t know that witch-hunts still occur today. In Northern Ghana, there are at least six witch camps. In Defense of Witches by Mona Chollet analyzes the treatment of women since the witch-hunts and how they contributed to the shaping of our society today. She looks at 3 main aspects: independent women, childless women, and elderly women. Women are not alone in being persecuted as witches. Men have also fallen victim to accusations but they make up a considerably smaller percentage and most men that were accused were more likely to receive a trial. It shows that the witch trials were deeply rooted in sexism and misogyny.

“The campaign led between 1507 and 1593 in twenty-two villages in the region of Trier, In Germany–the starting point and also the epicenter, along with Switzerland, of the witch hunts–was so relentless that two of the villages, only one woman was left alive; in total 368 women were burned.”

IN DEFENSE OF WITCHES
Historians believe that approximately 50,000 to 100,000 women were executed but this does not include those who were murdered, committed suicide, died in prison, or died from the torture inflicted on them. Many women were banished, reduced to live the rest of their lives in extreme poverty, and suffered from more abuse. The accusations were often associated with meeting with the devil and therefore had religious connections. Oftentimes, Jews were included in these accusations because there were claims that women and Jews wanted to attack Christianity. In 1233, Pope Gregory IX proclaimed that cats were the devil’s servants, and in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII proclaimed that cats that were with women were considered familiars, and the cats were burned along with the accused. This actually led to the rise of rats and because of that…the rise of disease—which was blamed on witches.

This book is a powerhouse of information and not pleasant information. One cannot help but feel angry. Independent women-the unmarried and widows were seen as unnatural as they didn’t have a man for guidance. The childless woman insinuated that she was heartless because who wouldn’t want a child. There has always been the criminalization of contraception and abortion. Then the elderly woman is seen as a woman who has outlived her usefulness and their experience is seen as a problem. But I also appreciated how in the fight for equality, the author dives into how white women left women of color behind in that fight and how privilege plays a factor.

While the argument is precise and organized, it does end abruptly. Some arguments had a tendency to be a little repetitive, but I overall thought the book is very well researched. I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Mona Chollet's In Defense of Witches is a “brilliant, well-documented” celebration (Le Monde) by an acclaimed French feminist of the witch as a symbol of female rebellion and independence in the face of misogyny and persecution.

A MUST READ FOR ANYONE!

In Defense of Witches wasn’t at all what I expected, but I loved it!

The beginning of the book speaks heavily of witches. As it moves on, though, witches are mostly left behind so that we can explore many things throughout history that have been unfair for women. You’ll see many quotes from people, studies, etc. to back up what the author thinks. And her thought process is almost always spot on.

Women were once hung or burned as a witch if they were “difficult.” We also have a seemingly unending list of issues involving work, the ability to not have a child, being kept out of the healthcare industry until relatively recently, etc. All of these topics are covered in this ode to feminism. A very good read that I recommend to women and men, as long as they’re willing to actually listen to the author’s arguments.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

This. Book. Phew. My biggest problem with it is that I probably highlighted half of the book and wanted to immediately share quotes and have to wait until pub day! Absolutely fascinating, amazingly written, and food for my feminist witch soul.