Witchcraft: Crash Course European History #10

During our last several episodes, Europe and the European-controlled world have been in crisis. Wars, disease, climate changes, and shifts in religious and political power threw the European world into turmoil. People were looking for a scapegoat, and for many, it was a time of magical thinking. So, maybe witches were responsible for all the problems? It was a popular idea, but, alas, the witches weren’t responsible.

Sources:

• Godbeer, Richard, ed. The Salem Witch Hunt: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2018.
• Kupperman, Karen. Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. Plus additional personal communications.
• Parker, Geoffrey. Global Crisis: War, Climate Change, and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
• Roper, Lyndall. Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe. London: Routledge, 1994.
• Roper, Lyndal. The Witch in the Western Imagination, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012.