A Classics Reading List

In any field, there are certain "classic" texts, solidly-researched works that survive years of scholarly criticism. These are the books that form the backbone of a scholar's bibliography, the works you'll see cited time and again in academic footnotes. The following books are some of the classics on Witchcraft.

Jenny Gibbons

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General Overviews

Kors, Alan and Edward Peters. _Witchcraft in Europe, 1100-1700: A Documentary History._ (1972)
Lea, Henry. _Materials Towards a History of Witchcraft_. (3 vol., 1957)
Levack, Brian. _The Witch Hunt in Western Europe_. (1987, 1995)

Medieval Witchcraft

Cohn, Norman. _Europe's Inner Demons_. (1975)
Kieckhefer, Richard. _European Witch Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture_. (1976)
Peters, Edward. _The Magician, the Witch, and the Law._ (1978)
Russell, Jeffrey. _Witchcraft in the Middle Ages_. (1972)

Regional Studies:

Ankarloo, Bengt and Gustav Henningsen. _Early Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries._ (1990 -- Sicily, Hungary, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Portugal)
Boyer, Paul and Stephen Nissenbaum. _Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft._ (1974)
Briggs, Robin. _Communities of Belief: Cultural and Social Tensions in Early Modern France_. (1989)
Burr, G.L. _Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706._ (1914 -- America)
Demos, John Putnam. _Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England._ (1982)
Evans, R.J.W. _The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550-1700._ (1979 -- Austria)
Ewen, C.L. Three early studies of English trial record material: _Witch-Hunting and Witch Trials_ (1929);
_Witchcraft and Demonianism_ (1933); and
_Witchcraft in the Star Chamber_ (1938).
Gijswijt-Hofstra, Marie and Willem Frijhoff. _Witchcraft in the Netherlands from the Fourteenth to the Twentieth Century_. (1991 -- yes, Marie's name is spelled correctly. <g>)
Ginzburg, Carlo. _The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_. (1983 -- northern Italy)
Godbeer, Richard. _The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England_. (1992)
Hall, David. _World of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Beliefs in Early New England._ (1989)
Henningsen, Gustav. _The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition (1609-1614)_. (1980)
Karlsen, Carol. _The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. (1989)
Kittredge, George. _Witchcraft in Old and New England._ (1929!)
Klaniczay, Gabor. _The Uses of Supernatural Power: The Transformation of Popular Religion in Medieval and Early-Modern Europe._ (1990) Most of this is not about Witchcraft, but it contains three excellent essays on Hungarian Witchcraft.
Larner, Christine. _Enemies of God._ (1981 -- Scotland)
Macfarlane, Alan. _Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England._ (1970)
Martin, R. _Witchcraft and the Inquisition in Venice, 1550-1650._ (1989)
Midelfort, H.C. Erik. _Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany, 1562- 1684: The Intellectual and Social Foundations_. (1972)
Monter, E. William. _Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: The Borderlands During the Reformation._ (1976)
Notestein, Wallace. _A History of Witchcraft in England._ (1911!!)
Rosen, Barbara. _Witchcraft_. (Also published as _Witchcraft in England, 1558-1618_) (1969)
Thomas, Keith. _Religion and the Decline of Magic._ (1971 -- England)
Zguta, Russell. "Witchcraft trials in seventeenth century Russia." In American Historical Review 82 (1977, pp. 1187-1207).

Specialty Topics

Harley, D. "Historians as demonologists: the myth of the midwife- witch." in Social History of Medicine 3 (1990).
Walker, D.P. _Unclean Spirits: Possession and Exorcism in France and England in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries_ (1981)

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