Gibson’s Witchcraft made me furious.

And I loved every second of it.

Marion Gibson takes her readers on a wild ride through the history of witch trials. From fifteenth-century Austria, where a crazed, incel-like monk (Gibson’s words, but I’m here for them) went on a rampage, burning women at the stake to Stormy Daniels’ highly public defamation trial against Donald Trump, the author charts the development of witchcraft as a legally-punishable crime across time and space. As she states in the Introduction, “In telling this seven-century story, Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials shows how the demonological idea of the witch originated and grew, changed over time, but did not die. Instead, it was repurposed so that witches continue to be put on trial globally.” That is, the book does not delve into dis/proving the existence of witches (though it does, on occasion, explore the beliefs and practices of certain self-identified witches). Rather, its focus is explaining how certain Christian-based legal systems (cough, cough, British Empire, cough) used the idea of witches and Satan to vilify anyone who did not fit into their prescribed social role.

Witchcraft is all over the place – geographically speaking, that is – and Gibson finds ways to take what most of us know, or think we know, about witch trials and make it fresh. For instance, readers might be familiar with the names Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, the Salem settlers first accused of witchcraft. But did you know that the accusations didn’t actually start there, but with an enslaved girl named Tatabe, who was stolen from her indigenous community in South America as a child before being trafficked to Barbados and then Massachusetts? The same girls who accused Good and Osborne claimed Tatabe, who labored in their home, cursed them before eventually adding Good and Osborne into the mix.

One of the things this book does so well is tease out the racial, gender, and class tensions that, historically, have fueled witch trials, especially in places where European colonizers have controlled indigenous populations. Settlers from across Europe, for instance, used allegations of witchcraft to assert power over the Sámi people (tribes indigenous to extreme northern Europe), and the impact that Native American Powwow magic had on Pennsylvania Dutch settlers. Chapter 12 shows the devastating impacts of Pentecostal missionaries (among other factors) on communities across sub-Saharan Africa. “The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),” she notes, “estimated in 2012 that around twenty thousand ‘witch children’ were homeless in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, even though accusing a child of witchcraft is illegal there.” In contemporary America and parts of Europe, the witch has evolved into a symbol of counter-culture or liberation, but that didn’t stop Stormy Daniels’ political enemies from using “witch” terminology to demean and discredit her.

 The material covered in the book is fascinating and presented in a way that will make the reader unable to set it down. What really got me, though, is how easy it is to identify with all the women whom history has persecuted – and prosecuted – as witches, since the patriarchal need to control women is ever-present. (In fact, Gibson notes that in his decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, Samuel Alito ***ACTUALLY QUOTED*** a seventeenth-century judge who sentenced multiple women to burn at the stake for alleged witchcraft). “As witchcraft history repeated itself in the removal of women’s legal rights, it was also deliberately inverted to portray the removers of those rights as victims.” Damn.

 Despite the heavy material, I don’t think you’ll walk away discouraged. Gibson tells this story in a victim-forward way that puts the women at the center of the narrative, right where they belong, while exposing the weak-minded men who feared them.

A Fictitious Propaganda About Demonic Women

The author, Gibson, is a Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter in the UK. The “Introduction: What Is a Witch” misunderstands the problem by arguing that it stemmed in the split of the British Protestants from the Catholic church. My re-attribution research into the Renaissance found that most of this “debate” was fabricated by a single ghostwriter who wrote on both sides of the Protestant versus Catholic arguments, and also on both the pro- and anti-witchcraft sides. Verstegan sold these texts to politicians, theologians and others who profited from these debates becoming popular to gain powerful positions. For example, after Verstegan ghostwrote “James I’s” Daemonology (1597), James I managed to win the English crown while being far from next in line for that throne. Verstegan also condemned Papists to death in his “Anthony Monday”-bylined English Roman Life (1582), while seemingly being exiled from England for publishing pro-Catholic propaganda (and then being paid pensions by the Pope and Spain for continued espionage and Catholic publishing). Verstegan made up, forged and backdated much of the “demonology” theology that has been credited to multiple bylines. Gibson does not cite sources as she presents a version of the witch-trials that are typically pitched in history classes. “Just as Eve had been corrupted by Satan, so fifteenth-century women were also seen as open to his suggestions.” There are no citations from texts for this perspective, as most of the texts Verstegan ghostwrote actually accuse male practitioners of demonic aspects, including simply of being Papists. The shift towards seeing women as the main victims of these trials might come from cherry-picking interest in the isolated cases where women were tried, which as they summary states happened not in Renaissance Britain, Germany and Italy, but rather mostly later in other parts of the world with other theological or political motives. The lack of citations in Gibson’s general summary of this background is troubling because she is clearly misunderstanding and ignoring historical evidence. For example, she notes that “in many jurisdictions, women made up 75 to 90 percent of the accused”, without specifying to what jurisdiction this if referring and why there is such a wide gap in this estimate.
The narrative does become slightly more grounded in actual research by “Chapter One: The Trial of Helena Scheuberin: A Demonologist Hammers Witches”, as a description is offered of an Austrian household of a Catholic prince in the 1480s. Though it is problematic that this chapter begins without any citation for what is the primary source for this narrative? When was it written? Who wrote it? Were they biased? I turned to the “Notes” section to figure this out. The notes for the “Introduction” refer to recent books that were published between the 1970s and 2010, without any citations from the Renaissance period covered. And “Chapter One” also repeats citations from these later history books. The first earliest text mentioned is the German book from 1890 about the 1485 trial. In fact, there are no other citations for any books in this chapter that were published before 1970. It is extremely inappropriate for a researcher to write about the Renaissance without checking any sources from the period in question. A book that was written 400 years after an event can be entirely fictitious. One must check if ideas presented centuries later are in fact supported by documented facts. I cannot continue reading a book with these types of flimsy citations.

This book covers 13 trials from Denmark Scotland Africa the American colonies and although most are set hundreds of years ago the one that fascinated me the most was the one happening today in the country in SouthernAfrica where they even have witch camps where mainly women are held in bondage for years. The stories of what got them there in this modern day Internet error it’s just amazing to me rumor speculation and fear minus facts equals most women’s accusation and punishment. It also talks about how throughout the trials modern day movies newspapers in the like help defend the defenseless and get the word out about the wrong punishment even in the case of the Southern Africans I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it it is a definite five star read this book is the reason I love nonfiction adult because of authors like Marion Gibson in this book. I want to thank Scribner and NetGalley for this free ark please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review

Very interesting book talking about the trials of witches through history. Throughout it all, misogyny reigns supreme. How dare women have any power or control? /sigh

This book delves into thirteen famous and lesser-known witch trials throughout history, exploring the evolving perceptions of witchcraft from feared crime to feminist symbol. It amplifies long-silenced voices and sheds light on the complex narrative behind societal attitudes and gendered persecution of witches over the centuries.

This book takes a global view of witchcraft persecution rather than looking at it just from a European perspective. It’s fascinating and easy to understand.

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

An interesting examination of witch trails throughout history and how they’ve intersected with various -isms, mostly sexism, as we all know, but also racism, ageism, ableism and homophobia.

An interesting recount of witch trials in history. I really liked the writing and the new facts I found myself reading for the first time. Witch trials are just an overall interesting subject to read about. 3 stars

This is the story of many women and men from across the centuries and around the world who have been tried for witchcraft, and the often surprising historical currents that led them there, and influenced whether they would be allowed to live or die.

I was born about an hour away from Salem, Massachusetts, though I never went to visit until 2019. Of course I went in October, which is the absolute peak of their tourist station, and battled my way through a crowded open air market to check out all the witchy sights. In this day and age, it can be tough to imagine how seriously the accusations were taken back then, but Witchcraft does an excellent job of putting things in perspective.

In this book, we are taken on a trip to attend thirteen different witch trials, which take place across diverse points in space and time. I liked how the author showed us how society's perspective on witchcraft evolved from trying to persecute those that were sincerely believed to be in the league with the devil to charging them for presenting themselves as workers of magic. Gibson does an excellent job of explaining the complicated history that often led up to the accusations.

However, I did feel that the writing was dry at times, almost more academic than popular nonfiction; despite the interesting stories related, I found myself getting a little bored at times. I also thought the modern-day section of the book was markedly weaker than the rest of it, as the author didn't do a very good job of diving into the material as she did with the older historical cases.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Scribner for an advanced copy of this new book on the history of the trials held against people declared witches, the changing political and religious reasons, and how many events from the past, seem just as relevant today.

Humans, as one can notice from the political climate don't like to admit either their mistakes or their own infallibility. To forgive might be human, to admit to a mistake well that might people think one is not the Winner, the Alpha that a person wants to give off. Bad luck happens to others. When it happens to certain people, it is a conspiracy. A plot, Deviltry. Even witchery. Some even call looking at one's long mistakes and errors in ethics and the law a witch hunt. Never from themselves, always from others. The different. The one's who don't have anything and are jealous. The ones who act uppity, different, don't care about social positions, or who have lost everything and don't even have the decency to die. The outsiders, the misfits, and the less dead. Everything can be blamed on them. Their difference is their evil, and it should be stamped out. Though once one starts, it is hard to stop. Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials by Marion Gibson, Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter has written a book about various witch trials, from the famous to the lost, from the past to the last presidential cycle, looking at the changing use of the word witch, and how it is used to control people of differing backgrounds, and ideas.

The book looks at 13 trials, again from the past to about 2017, looking at how certain people were considered threats to a community, and why governments and religious leaders allowed these trials to occur. Some start with a string of bad luck, a group of fisherman drown, well their must be a reason. A King chosen by God can't bring his wife home as the seas are stormy, well that has to witches. A homosexual joins the church and writes and acts in a way that would be frowned at by members of his clergy and government. Even political motivations such as witch trials in Africa, and the modern witch hunt that seems to bewitch an ex-president. Most of the people are women who are accused, usually the ones on the down side of society, with no family, or incomes to draw on, maybe physically hindered, or different in some way. Or a women who doesn't grovel to the hierarchy, and one who has the social standing and the money to fight the claims of magic use.

A very interesting book about a subject I thought I was familiar with, but turns out I was wrong. Gibson looks at the different trials not just from the point of view of witches, but of the backgrounds of the people involved, where available, and the politics of the time. Gibson has done an amazing amount of research, but this does not read like a history tome. Gibson's writing style if very good, able to convery a lot of information, and much to think about without bogging the reader down, or slowing the narrative. Each trial is unique in itself and helps to illustrate how the term of witch is used to attack different people, or even to allow for certain behavior as in murder case. As I said, not the book I expected but one that I enjoyed even more than I thought I would. I look forward to reading more by Marion Gibson.