Karlsen has written an intriguing social history of witchcraft in Puritan New England (1620-1725). She unearths detailed evidence which demonstrates that prosecuted and accused witches generally were older, married women who had violated the religious and/or economic Puritan social hierarchy. Beyond their childbearing years and sometimes the recipients of inheritances, these women threatened the male-dominated social order and drew the ire of middle-aged men who accused them of witchcraft. A well-written, provocative addition to the recent scholarship on New England witchcraft.David Szatmary, Univ. of Washington Extension, Seattle (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The very word witchcraft evokes diverse and conflicting images of women and their role in seventeenth-century New England society. Karlsen, a historian, isolates the kinds of women who were most likely to be accused and tried as witches, examining their social and economic positions and the various afflictions (epilepsy, hysteria, and schizophrenia, for instance) that caused them to be called witches. These women emerge from this study as real and independent individuals who lived within a fearful and suspicious society. Charts, notes, and bibliography appended. To be indexed. JMM. 133.4'0974 Witchcraft New England [OCLC] 87-16615

The latest in an extensive list of scholarly works about witchcraft that have appeared during the last several years. Noting that in most previous investigations little importance is assigned to the gender of witches, Karlsen argues that witchcraft is actually the story of women and their place in society. Her well-organized book focuses upon life in 17th-century New England. Beginning with the accusations brought against Anne Hutchinson in the 1630s, the author carefully details each new outbreak of witchcraft, such as the disturbances in Hartford in the 1660s, and in Salem in the 1680s. Important individual cases are explained in the context of demographic, economic, religious, and sexual factors. Karlsen concludes that witches in Colonial America were simply dissatisfied with, or rebelling against, the gender and class hierarchies inherent in a religiously based male-oriented social order. This is an important book, well written and meticulously researched. It follows and extends John Demos's Entertaining Satan (CH, Apr '83) and Richard Weisman's Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th Century Massachusetts (CH, Jul '84). Karlsen's work is a better interpretation than Erica Jong's earlier feminist analysis, Witches (1981). All public and academic libraries.-R.M. Jellison, Miami University, Ohio

The most plausible explanation to date of an implausible aspect of early American history: the witchcraft hysteria in the New England Colonies that led to over 350 public accusations of pacts with the devil and supernatural powers. With the multitude of details typical of a doctoral dissertation--which this book indeed once was--Karlsen (History/U. of Michigan) presents an astounding array of facts about the accusations and trials of witchcraft in Colonial America. Combing through records surviving from 17th- and early 18th-century Puritan settlements in New England, she describes the lives of accusers and accused. The first few chapters bog down under an avalanche of names, dates, places, and statistics, but the pace quickens like a bolero as Karlsen begins to unravel and analyze factors of age, gender, economics, historical context, politics, Puritan belief systems, and family and community relationships. With the patience and skill of a good lawyer building a case of seemingly disparate and complex clues, she shows how careful examination of each factor eventually reveals witchcraft accusations as Puritan reactions to evidence of independence or rebelliousness in women. This is an explanation of witch hunts long proffered in feminist circles, but with little or no solid information to support it. Karlsen provides the evidence. Although some of the statistics are based on small numbers, the author's material is abundant, her analysis keen and thoughtful, and her conclusions make sense. In fact, once presented, they seem to have been obvious always. An enlightening contribution to US historical studies and to the comprehension of some of the legal and lethal mechanisms of gender stereotyping. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.