Reviews

The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World by Malcolm Gaskill

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pin_man's review against another edition

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adventurous informative inspiring mysterious fast-paced

4.5

Excellent

ipb1's review against another edition

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4.0

I do have a fascination with historical witch-hunts, largely because the paranoia, fear, and vindictiveness behind them have such an obvious connection with our own latter day persecutions of Women/Gays/Jews/Blacks/Immigrants/Socialists/Muslims/'Foreigners'/etc etc etc.
I have to be honest and say that this painstakingly and meticulously researched history can at times be, well, a bit dull, but for the most part it does hold the attention as you peer back at yet another appalling historical triumph of superstition, fake-news and ignorance over sanity, compassion and enlightenement.
The main takeaway, of course, is that instead of our periodic purges all of our putative 'witches', historical and modern, society would be in much better shape if we could root out all of the bloody witch-finders.

donaldleitch's review

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informative sad slow-paced

4.0

The Ruin of All Witches is a thoroughly researched account of mid 17th century Springfield, Massachusetts. Through the book, i understand the culture of the community including the power that fear had on people’s lives. Day to day experiences are interpreted through the eyes of God and whether God is pleased or not pleased with individuals and the community. Malevolent forces were always to blame when individuals were faced with poor crops, illness and death, even a failed pudding.