Why am I passionate about this?
I am a historian of early modern Europe, with a research focus on Spain and Italy. I first encountered archival documents from the Spanish Inquisition during research for my first book: I was already a fan of religious history but quickly became a fan of studying the law. I am fascinated by the ways in which people between the 1500s and 1700s used the legal systems at their disposal to recapture honor and pursue enemies. I am always on the lookout for ways in which religious prescriptions from centralized authorities did not match what was happening on the ground with ordinary, usually illiterate people.
Lu's book list on the trauma of European witch-hunting
Why did Lu love this book?
A classic study that was in the vanguard of American investigations of European witch-hunting when it first appeared in 1972.
It was and is remarkable in the ways it takes seriously both religious and social history.
Highly readable, extremely learned, and based on years of archival investigation, Midelfort’s work is a must-read.
1 author picked Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany, 1562-1684 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
This book is an analysis of witchcraft and witch hunting as they appeared in southwestern Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Starting from a short analysis of some basic problems in the interpretation of European witchcraft, it proceeds to a study of the shifting denominational views regarding witches and the growth of Catholic orthodoxy. That theoretical vantage yields insight into the patterns in time, space, and confession that characterized all witch hunts in the German Southwest. There follows a narrative analysis of the largest witch hunts and the general crisis of confidence they produced. Analysis is complemented by a…