In 1711 the Massachusetts Bay colony compensated the families of those persecuted as witches in the 1692 Salem trials, but Davies (social history, Univ. of Hertfordshire; The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts) demonstrates that neither America's belief in witchcraft nor the attendant accusations, defamations, and even killings had ended. He combed newspaper stories from all over the country plus secondary sources to report innumerable cases exhibiting the lies, prejudice, superstition, lawsuits, and savagery continuing to surround the fear of witchcraft and suspicions of bewitchment well into the mid-20th century. Such suspicions were in effect caused by factors such as ethnic and racial prejudice; the movement of Native American folk remedies, healing rituals, and magical beliefs into mainstream culture; lack of knowledge about mental health and physical ailments; personal animosities; and paranoid reactions to bad luck and hard economic times. Davies presents a convincing argument that witchcraft troubles subsided after New Deal entitlements allowed Americans to rely on the government for support instead of blaming "witches" for economic problems and inexplicable difficulties. -VERDICT Completing the little-known history of witchcraft and our attitudes toward it long after Salem, this book will be particularly engaging for students of American folklore and witchcraft history, and to those interested in the continued interweaving of superstition into American culture.-Margaret Kappanadze, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Historian Davies (Magic: A Very Short Introduction) makes a strong case for the inefficacy of corporeal punishment in this tedious cultural history-despite the judges' intentions, the 1692 executions in Salem, Mass., of 19 individuals accused of witchcraft did little to inhibit its development and evolution. Drawing upon stories from colonial times to today, Davies explores a number of topics related to wizardry-such as how communities identified, dealt with, and legislated the supposed practice of sorcery-and he offers up an intriguing social taxonomy of witches: "outsider witches," he explains, were pegged as such because of "where they lived, how they lived, and what they looked like"; "long-term personal feuds and unresolved tensions" led to scurrilous accusations of witchery and what Davies terms "conflict witches"; and the "accidental" type were "simply in the wrong place at the wrong time... or did or said something completely innocently but which subsequent misfortune rendered suspicious with hindsight." Over the years, the stigma surrounding witchcraft has dissipated: in the 19th century, many people placed horseshoes above the threshold of their houses to ward off evil, but today, proponents of Wicca are regarded as "benign and sympathetic" pagans. It has some compelling moments, but Davies's wearying survey adds little to the study of occultism in America. 20 illus. Agent: Andrew Lownie, the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency Ltd. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Davies (Univ. of Hertfordshire, UK) offers a broad view of witchcraft, witches, and folk belief in the US from the witch mania at Salem to the modern era. He focuses on the witch beliefs of Native Americans, African Americans, and Americans of European origin, whose views of witches have been quite similar and have influenced the popular concept of "witch" in the US. Typically, the witch is a woman, a malicious figure who brings harm to humans or their crops, animals, or worldly possessions, but who also serves a useful purpose by providing an answer for unexplainable misfortunes. Davies offers a helpful typology for understanding his view of malicious witchcraft: the "outsider witch," the "conflict witch," and the "accidental witch." While the malicious witch has not disappeared, she has been joined by other witch types. For example, TV and Hollywood have produced the mischievous witch, the glamorous witch, and the teenage witch. There is also the "trick or treat" witch of Halloween. Davies includes a discussion of the origins of the Wicca religion and its relationship to ecofeminism. An informative, useful introduction to a fascinating aspect of American culture that clearly demonstrates that witch beliefs in the US did not end with Salem. Summing Up: Recommended. General and undergraduate libraries. L. B. Gimelli emeritus, Eastern Michigan University