Witchcraft in Early Modern England

Over the past decade there has been a tremendous upsurge in both popular interest and original writing on history of witchcraft and witch - hunting in the early modern period. This activity has shown just how complex the subject is.  It is hard for those coming new to it to pick their way through a mass of information and of competing interpretations.

`Witchcraft in Early Modern England' introduces readers to the current state of debate and to future directions for investigation. It covers such fundamental topics as:

* witchcraft as an intellectual and theological problem

* neighbourly tensions related to witchcraft accusations

* the issue of witchcraft and gender

* the problem of the decline of witch - persecution.

The book is characterised throughout by a straightforward approach which guides the reader through the sometimes difficult details of this fascinating but much - misunderstood subject. The interpretative text is accompanied by a selection of documentary extracts, some of them never previously published, which allows the reader to get to grips with witchcraft as it was experienced in the past, and to understand  how historians have constructed their interpretations of early modern witchcraft.

James Sharpe is Professor of History at York University.  A leading authority on witchcraft, his many publications include `The Bewitching of Anne Gunter' (2000).