Witchcraft, Witch-Hunting, and Politics in Early Modern England by Peter Elmer

Witchcraft, Witch-Hunting, and Politics in Early Modern England by Peter Elmer

Witchcraft, Witch-hunting, and Politics in Early Modern England constitutes a wide-ranging and original overview of the place of witchcraft and witch-hunting in the broader culture of early modern England. Based on a mass of new evidence extracted from a range of archives, both local and national, it seeks to relate the rise and decline of belief in witchcraft, alongside the legal prosecution of witches, to the wider political culture of the period. Building on the seminal work of scholars such as Stuart Clark, Ian Bostridge, and Jonathan Barry, Peter Elmer demonstrates how learned discussion of witchcraft, as well as the trials of those suspected of the crime, were shaped by religious and political imperatives in the period from the passage of the witchcraft statute of 1563 to the repeal of the various laws on witchcraft. In the process, Elmer sheds new light upon various issues relating to the role of witchcraft in English society, including the problematic relationship between puritanism and witchcraft as well as the process of decline.

[M]asterfully researched...This book bursts with a wealth of case studies and microhistories that will no doubt assist witchcraft scholars, even if their research does not pivot around politics....Overall, this is a valuable and impressive contribution to current scholarship. * Orna Alyagon Darr, Renaissance Quarterly *
Reading Witchcraft, witch-hunting, and politics is a fascinating rollercoaster ride that throws you around and makes you see the history of witchcraft in new ways, if not quite upside-down. It is an experience that is highly recommended for everyone with even the remotest interest in early modern witchcraft. * Jan Machielsen, Cardiff University, Journal of Ecclesiastical History *
Elmer provides flesh on the skeleton of significant research through insights as they apply not only to witchcraft in early modern England, but to the various contemporary 'other' manifesting throughout global phenomenology and material culture today. * Jewell Homad Johnson, Parergon *
Full of fascinating nuggets of information... this is an important, wide-ranging, and scholarly book that will need to be engaged with by all later writers. * Jaqueline Pear son, The Seventeenth Century *
Peter Elmer's book constitutes an indispensable work for anyone interested in witchcraft and demonology, but also more widely for all who are interested in the ways the political and the religious conjointly impact on any social behaviour and trend. * Pierre Kapitaniak, Cahier 'Elisabé thains: A journal of English Renaissance Studies *
A truly brilliant book. It is immersed in staggering erudition and profound understanding, and crackles with intellectual self-confidence and penetrating insight. It is quite simply one of the most important books on English witchcraft ever written, and essential reading for anyone ready to learn what this strange and widely misunderstood subject once meant. * Malcolm Gaskill, History *
a fascinating and thought provoking book which provides a fresh and compelling take on witchcraft in early modern England ... Elmer is generous in flagging many potentially fruitful areas of future research along the way ... it is likely to prove an essential read for all scholars of early modern witchcraft, though it also offers much which will be of interest to historians interested in the politics and society of early modern England more generally. * Imogen Peck, Reviews in History *
This is a complex and densely argued academic work ... It should be of interest to all studying the religious and social history of the period. * Peter Rogerson, Magonia *
Meticulously researched, this is a must read for students of witchcraft and early modern society in general ... Essential. * CHOICE *

Peter Elmer studied for his doctoral dissertation under Stuart Clark at Swansea University, working on the religious origins of medical reform in seventeenth-century England. He taught for seventeen years at the Open University, and in 2012 was appointed as Senior Research Fellow at Exeter University, where he currently works with a group of colleagues on a Wellcome Trust funded project designed to create a database of medical practitioners in early modern England, Wales, and Ireland.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780198717720
ISBN 10	0198717725
Title	Witchcraft, Witch-Hunting, and Politics in Early Modern England
Author	Peter Elmer
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	2016-01-14
Number of pages	384
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.