This class will look at the Salem Witch Trials from the perspective of one of the most influential books written about that event. Exploring this interpretation will give us the opportunity to think about how historians “do” history and about how understandings and interpretations can evolve in many different directions over a long period of time. The book also gives us a look at how early New England towns functioned and how complicated these tiny communities could be.
Required Book: Boyer, Paul and Nissenbaum, Steven. (1974) Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, Harvard University Press
