Entertaining Satan

John Putnam Demos remains the “dean” of historians of the Salem witch trials. 

Entertaining Satan remains his most impactful contribution to the study of the events of 1692 by providing their cultural context in early New England, upon which historians have built over the years expanding upon Demos’ findings.

Perhaps his greatest contribution is his interdisciplinary approach invoking the research tools of psychology and sociology, as well as cultural history. His concluding chapter, “Communities: Witchcraft over Time,” provides broadly, excellent insights drawn from his extensive research.  

While researching and writing My Enemy’s Tears, I found Entertaining Satan on the shelves of a bookstore in New York City. Sure enough, there was a chapter on Mary Bliss Parsons titled Hard Thoughts and Jealousies. A prominent historian studied my 8th great-grandmother’s case and wrote about it. Local gossip was the author’s first subject for exploration—right on, because gossip is what led to Mary’s imprisonment and trial. Demos explores the lives of many accused of witchcraft and the culture that accused them. Anyone interested in the history of women’s lives and the reasons behind the centuries-long belief… show more.

This study of suspected New England witch cases from a sociological angle, made the study of the Salem witch trials respectable again after decades of the topic being dismissed as beneath the notice of serious scholarship.

A truly trail-blazing book that combines exhaustive and careful archival research and conceptual insights drawn from sociology and psychology. As such, it’s both a work of record about colonial witchcraft and a compelling interpretation. In a way, it does for America what Robin Briggs’s Witches and Neighbours would later do for Europe. Demos guides us into the textured economic and political world of the pre-modern (yet stressfully modernizing) farming community, and asks us to take its people and their beliefs as we find them. Accusers and accused alike have facets to their characters, as well as back stories, which help… show more.