**Book Review: *Witchcraft: A History of Good and Evil* by [Author Name]**

"Witchcraft: A History of Good and Evil" offers a comprehensive exploration of the complex and often misunderstood practice of witchcraft, tracing its development from ancient times to the modern day. The book examines both the dark and light sides of witchcraft, highlighting not only the witches and warlocks associated with evil but also those who used their knowledge for healing and protection.

The author delves into the infamous witch hunts of the medieval period, particularly the actions of figures like Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General. These events, which led to the execution of tens of thousands of women, are juxtaposed with modern-day witch hunts, including McCarthyism in the 1950s and the continued persecution of accused witches in parts of Africa, India, and the Caribbean.

In addition to historical accounts, the book also touches on fictional representations of witches, such as Morgan le Fey and Merlin, showing their lasting influence on popular culture. Thoroughly researched and elegantly written, *Witchcraft* offers both historical insight and a thought-provoking commentary on the enduring power of fear and superstition.

This is an essential read for anyone interested in the social, political, and cultural history of witchcraft, providing a fascinating and balanced perspective on a subject often steeped in mystery and fear.

Beginning with the history and spread of witch hunts around the world. And also the methods of torture and execution.

I had a bit of trouble getting through the first half. I enjoyed the second much more.

The second half of the book gives details of specific women and men accused of witchcraft, along with certain witch hunters. Concluding with the ever famous Salem witch trials.

Thank you to Pen and Sword and NetGalley for allowing me to read a preview copy of Phil Carradice’s informative history of witches in his book Witches and Witch Hunts Through the Ages. Prior to this, I finished reading The Devil’s Best Trick by Randall Sullivan, another book that looks at both ancient and modern forms of evil, and how societies and those with power often seek to justify violence through labeling differences. Carradice’s book focuses more specifically on the role of witches over time, and how Christianity largely changed our views of witches and witchcraft, specifically in the Medieval Times. Carradice’s book begins with an overall explanation of our modern ideas about witches and witchcraft and how it has shifted. I really appreciated how much he used literature, especially Shakespeare, to identify the kinds of different roles that witches and cunning folk played in literature, and how it often has affected our views of what witches look like and how they behave. He then takes a historical look across different cultures and time periods, examining the role that witches played in societies, starting with the ancient world of Babylon and how witches (and priests) were often facilitators of the rituals that were such a significant part of ancient people’s lives, eventually moving into the world of Ancient Greeks and Romans. This is not the popular image of witches, but it helped to provide a different context and show how they were powerful people with a direct connection to the gods in the ancient world. This also might be why Christianity shifted the perspective to reconsider witches as evil, as those who are often using the black arts to gain power over others. Interestingly, Carradice goes on to show how Morgan LeFey, from Arthurian legends (and Merlin) could be considered witches due to their knowledge and powers in the stories. Although Arthurian legends are not real, Carradice makes effective use of the literature (as he did with Shakespeare) to serve as evidence of perceptions and attitudes towards witches, especially when there are contrasting views about Morgan’s actions and motives as both a healer and a harmer of Arthur. Carradice then gets more historical by analyzing the real witch hunts that started in the late Medieval Times, examining the Inquisition. He explores how witch hunts throughout Europe terrorized those who often were outsiders and did not have the support or power to speak up or defend themselves. Furthermore, I found it interesting to learn how many of the accusations stemmed from rivalries or desires for land ownership. Additionally, Carradice examines the life of the Witchfinder General, a self-appointed title for Matthew Hopkins. I didn’t know about the many trick that he and John Stearne employed to “identify” witches, nor that they were frequently paid by towns they went to. Carradice explains how witch finding was a lucrative business at the time, and we can see how those with power often benefitted from the loss of others. I also liked learning that these witch hunts were not relegated to Spain or England, but happened all over Europe. He uses both more famous examples, like the Loudun possession in 17th century as well as more obscure cases. It was also amazing to learn that royalty were also not exempt from these accusations by examining and detailing the lives of some wealthy landowning individuals (often women) who were accused of being witches. Although primarily focused on England, Carradice examines the case of Salem, MA in Colonial America, and provides some factual rebuttals that challenge the idea of witchcraft, specifically examining the difficult and conformist lives of the Puritans, especially those who experienced violent encounters with the Native Americans. Interestingly, Carradice ends the book with exploring more of the secular “witch hunts” in politics, examining the McCarthy Hearings and some modern uses of the terms, as well as the movement to reclaim witchcraft as a spiritual community connected with nature and knowledge. I really enjoyed this book and the detailed research and history that Carradice supplies to understand the various perspectives and experiences of people from different time periods. I also appreciated his use of both history and literature to examine the attitudes towards witches and those who were different or often did not conform to society’s dominant expectations. I would have liked to learn more about modern witchcraft and how it developed from the 19th into the 20th centuries. The last chapter covered a lot of ground, but also left me wanting to learn more about this shift in perspective and attitudes. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book for anyone interesting in history, religion, and social movements.

📖 Book Review

Witches and Witch Hunts Through the Ages
By Phil Carradice
Pen & Sword History, 30th April 2024

This book is a fascinating history dive into witchcraft, from its development as a pseudo-religious cult, right to the present day. It examines the concept of witch hunting, detailing the activities of Matthew Hopkins, the famous Witchfinder General, and highlights the witch hunts of the medieval period when 100,000 women were accused of witchcraft and nearly 80,000 executed.

Including fictional characters Merlin and Morgan le Fey tickled the fantasy fiction reader in me with delight.

Onto modern times, it takes in modern witch hunting, like Senator Joe McCarthy's Communist witch hunts of the 1950s, and the continued modern persecution of women and men accused of witchcraft in African, Indian and Caribbean states.

This book is the result of painstaking research, and is gracefully written. The casual reader may lose interest with lots of facts and figures, but anyone interested in the history of witches should welcome a copy of this comprehensive book to their bookshelf.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Pen & Sword and Phil Carradice for providing an eARC via NetGalley; this is my honest review.

Witches and Witch Hunts Through the Ages by Phil Carradice is an interesting exploration of the history and mythology surrounding witchcraft. Readers are taken on a journey through the centuries, examining beliefs, persecutions, and cultural significance of witches across different societies. Carradice's writing is engaging and accessible, making complex historical and cultural concepts easy to understand. Carradice covers the origins of witchcraft beliefs in ancient civilisations, to the infamous witch trials of the 17th century, to the enduring legacy of witches in popular culture. Carradice presents an objective perspective, avoiding sensationalism or oversimplification, and acknowledges the complex and often contradictory nature of the historical record. An interesting read for history buffs, fans of the supernatural, or anyone just curious about our enduring fascination with witches.

I'm afraid I can't give a positive review for this one. It's a good thing I read Ronald Hutton and Radcliffe Edmonds III's books in 2023 as I fact-checked each chapter. The narrative is disjointed and general statements aren't expanded upon with little transition. At one point it jumps from Anne Boleyn to Mickey Mouse to Rome in one page. There are just too many detours. Carradice also frequently uses the words "most" "many" or "some" in their descriptions, avoiding any specifics and more than a few statistics need citation. For example, they describe the witch's familiar as "becoming an accepted fact" in the Early Medieval Period. By whom? And how? Familiars do not exist in French, German or Slavic witch lore, only in Britain. Writing in "the Devil's book" is also a strictly British phenomenon. Those are the kind of rudimentary facts that proper research provides. Otherwise it's just misinformation. The witch hunts themselves aren't mentioned until you're about halfway through, but Carradice diverges to royal witches instead. It's ok to mention nobility, but dedicating several pages to bios doesn't exactly represent the full impact of European witch crazes on the general public. Here they recite heavily from Tracy Borman's and Gemma Holman's books.

Carradice also has a fundamental misunderstanding of what magic and witchcraft are. From an anthropological and historical perspective, not all magic / ritualistic practice is witchcraft, and not all who practice magic are witches. Shamans, Healers, Sorcerers, Alchemists and Temple Priest/Priestesses are separate titles and do not function in the same way. Any pagan religion can be called witchcraft if one removes it from its proper context. To broadly simplify Chinese ancestral worship, Japanese Shintoism, Greek oracles and Egyptian calendar rituals in a book on "witchcraft" is a terrible disservice. I'm afraid I can't recommend this one when there are better sources out there.

DNF: The author was too repetitive and going around in circles without going to the point. I couldn't understand where he was going to with his descriptions, even though his proposal of writing it as a form of story and not history made excited me.

Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
This a good book if you haven't read anything about witches in history. Or just if you are interested in the "history" of witches, in our world.
The contents of the books were really interesting, although sometimes it became a bit monotonous and slower to read

"Witch Hunt." We here that word more these days than in the past. But what does it really mean? What causes the paranoia that makes inquisitions into one's neighbors and friends run rampant? This book explores the origins of witch hunts and how they're still used to install fear into the public. Anyone who's interested in history and especially history of witchcraft won't want to miss this.

This a good book if you never read anything about witches in history and how different civilization approached it.
Some parts are quite interesting, other are not so much interesting.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Such a treasure of a book. I absolutely love taking a look at the darker side of history, and Witches and Witch Hunts Through the Ages really does that. Can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy!

When someone hears witches - most automatically think of the famous trials that happened in Salem Massachussetts. However, there is more to witches and witch hunts than that - and they go further back than one might actually realize. From ancient to more medival and into a modern setting - the author brings to the forefront the different fears which have borne the witchhunt craze.

This was a fantastic read, and full of great information. I had heard of some, but not all of the pieces that were presented within this book. There is a lot of information to unpack, but it also allows those who are looking to delve deeper into some aspects, to do so.

Pretty good and engaging.

Witches and witch hunts through the ages by Phil Carradice it’s a great book about witches from ancient times to modern day. Although Mr.Carradice hits all the highlights he even had things that’s surprised this amateur historian. Usually books that or well-known subjects to me or just wash rinse and repeat but the author does his due diligence to explain from the things they were blamed for like the plague bad crops to signs your neighbor may be a witch The invention of good witches Hollywoods popular films and shows about them to overall modern day acceptance of the practice he really hits it from all sides and covers every bass in this great expanse of book about witches witchhunts and ultimately how they became an OK thing to be. I love history and Pen and Sword History has become my go to whenever something tickles my fancy, I really find their book so good and rarely give their books less than five stars this one included this is a great read and another awesome book from the publisher. I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc copy. Please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

One word FASCINATING !! I devoured this and learnt so so much that I am joining a white witch coven to develop what i have learnt

THANK U THANK U THANK UTHANK UTHANK UTHANK UTHANK UTHANK UTHANK Ux

A broad and sweeping look at how witchcraft and witches themselves have been viewed throughout history. A good starting point from which to dive deeper into a particular era of interest.

Witches and Witch Hunts Through the Ages covers quite a broad spectrum of topics from Witches in the Ancient World all the way up to Modern Day interpretations.

There were some interesting topics such as Arthurian legend in regards to Merlin and Morgan La Fey who I had actually never heard of and some very brief mentions of Greek Gods and Goddesses in regards to magic.

I feel in some places the book dragged (especially to do with the Romans) with some information not being very engaging and quite a bit of the book listing people and giving a summary on how they fit into the narrative of the accused, the accuser or the witch hunter.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me and arc.

I think the author did a good job of distilling an overview of witches and how they have been viewed in society throughout the ages. The chapter on Greeks and Romans had some interesting insights, tying works of Greek literature such as The Iliad and The Odyssey to figures like Circe. There's also an interesting chapter on Morgan Le Fay and Merlin that discusses where most of people's perceptions of Morgan or Morgana come from, through the Arthurian lens and things like Le Morte D'Arthur, chivalric romances, and more. Readers who are well-versed in these areas are not going to find anything new that they didn't already know. For this reason, I think that a better audience for this book is someone who is just looking for an A-Z compendium that isn't too long or too much of a chore to read through, which summarizes the sort of highlights of witches or witch legends throughout history. One of the book's strengths is the discussion of the Middle Ages and the kinds of charges brought against women, or how they would come to be accused of witchcraft. And I mean, no book that talks about witch hunts in history would be complete without a discussion of the Salem Witch Trails, so there's a short chapter on that. The section on witch hunts in the modern day, such as townspeople in parts of the Congo who have accused women of witchcraft, or in parts of the United States, including Texas, is an interesting discussion. My major complaint is that the book focuses almost exclusively on white figures, characters, and white women. It would be much more refreshing to have authors produce works on witches and witch hunts against women from specific countries in the Middle East, or in Africa, or in the French Caribbean between the 17th and 19th centuries.

Thank you to the Author, publishers and Netgalley for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

A great read and an insightful account of the history of witches and the infamous witch hunts. The author exhibits remarkable knowledge on the subject and presents the content in a highly engaging style, which brings to life the stories of witches and their trials.

However, there were a few instances where the book felt slightly repetitive, and the excessive references to Arthur Miller's The Crucible were not to my liking. It would have been great to have delved deeper into the male attitudes towards women and the societal changes that eventually led to women becoming the primary target of witch hunters.

What truly stood out for me was the author's repeated mentions of Wales throughout the text, which is often overlooked in such historical accounts.

All in all, this book is a thoroughly enjoyable read that provides valuable insights into the history of witchcraft and the witch hunts.

"Witches and Witch Hunts Through the Ages" by Phil Carradice offers a comprehensive exploration into the dark and fascinating history of witchcraft and the associated persecution spanning centuries. Carradice skillfully navigates through the intricate web of beliefs, fears, and societal structures that fueled witch hunts across different cultures and epochs. With meticulous research and engaging prose, he delves into the cultural, religious, and political contexts that shaped perceptions of witchcraft, shedding light on the lives of those accused and the often tragic outcomes they faced. Carradice's narrative is both enlightening and sobering, offering valuable insights into humanity's enduring fascination with the supernatural and the enduring consequences of mass hysteria. This book is an essential read for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of witch hunts throughout history.

This book is a well put together history of witches and witch hunts through history. It seems very well thought out and researched and when reading, I appreciated the level of detail and how the author pulls everything together. Well done! This book is essential reading for anyone interested in witches and persecution over time and how those things came about in modern culture and society.