The Salem Witch Trials Reader

November 1, 2000
Documentary collections provide startling insights into historical events and issues because they transmit tone and texture through the words of the participants. This collection on the Salem witch trials is a good example, especially since witchcraft itself is such a peculiar and mesmerizing topic to 21st-century readers. The book is divided into sections devoted to background, the witch hunt as told through personal accounts, the people involved (both hunters and hunted), and the treatment of the Salem witch trials in history and literature. Among the materials included are trial transcripts, eyewitness accounts, church records, and letters. The book's strength is its ability to illuminate the emotions of the time through the words of the historical players. Its weakness, perhaps the weakness of all documentary collections, is that it implies that this is all there is. What must be kept in mind--particularly with regard to the section on the historians' view of Salem--is that much more than what is offered here has actually been written about Salem. Once that is understood, it is easy to marvel at this intriguing collection of excerpts. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.--Bonnie Collier, Yale Law Lib.

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