Robin Briggs (University of Oxford)

Broschiertes Buch

Witches and Neighbours

The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft

Beschreibung

Witches and Neighbours is a highly original and unconventional analysis of a fascinating historical phenomenon. Unlike other studies of the subject which focus on the mechanisms of persecution, this book presents a rich picture of witchcraft as an all-pervasive aspect of life in early modern Europe.

Autor

Robin Briggs is Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford where he has worked since his election as Prize Fellow in 1964. He was educated at Felsted School and Balliol College, Oxford and he is the author of The Scientific Revolution of the Seventeenth Century (1970), Early Modern France (2nd Edition 1998), and Communities of Belief: Cultural and Social Tensions in Early Modern France (1989).

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Blackwell Publishers
• 2nd Edition
• Seitenzahl: 416
• Erscheinungstermin: 25. Februar 2002
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 228mm x 151mm x 32mm
• Gewicht: 735g
• ISBN-13: 9780631233268
• ISBN-10: 0631233261
• Artikelnr.: 13620978

Rezensionen

"In this learned and meticulously researched book, Robin Briggs lays to rest many of the modern myths about the witch craze, without in any way diminishing its horror... Briggs skilfully shows how the myths of witchcraft were linked with fundamental human experiences of pain and anxiety... Lucid and important." Karen Armstrong, The Times

"Briggs provides a fascinating psychological insight into the ideological system that produced the trials. To understand them within their own historical context, he argues, is to realize that a belief in the witches power was neither irrational nor absurd... the evidence from this compelling book suggests that human actions are far more determined by irrational fears than our social selves are willing to accept." Julia Wheelwright, New Statesman

"I salute [Briggs s] rigorous and thoughtful scholarship." James Morrow, The Guardian