The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World

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Gaskill presents a compassionate, measured view dispelling several myths along the way. - Independent on Sunday To paraphrase part of the sources and methods section at the end of the book, Gaskill has no interest in explaining away witchcraft or in belittling people from the past for their perceived ignorance, instead taking a more emic approach to the phenomena described. The thoughts, feelings and reasonings of historical characters are respected, and taken on their own terms, something I’d argue is essential whenever dealing with anything from the past that doesn’t seem immediately rational to us. The acclaimed actor Kathryn Hunter plays all three witches in the forthcoming Hollywood adaptation of The Tragedy of Macbeth. The film is directed by Joel Coen and starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as the central couple. Hunter tells Andrew Marr that she studied the witch hunts of the 17th century and was inspired by the ‘outcast women’ who survived and suffered. Her performance is rooted in something real, but also hints at something created in the mind of Macbeth. You’ve written about Springfield today as a place of deserted downtown streets, blighted by loss of industry, unemployment and drugs, but with a rich history and enduring spirit. How did people in the city react to that? This book took me a while because I was constantly stopping to underline passages and scribble notes in the margins. There is much of great interest here to anyone fascinated by America's first European settlers and, in particular, the infamous Witch Trials.

I have no regrets: I’m free to read and write what I like, and I have more time to do it. I may yet return to witches, but right now I’m researching fugitive POWs in wartime Italy. I should stress, though, that I’m only able to do this because my wife has a job and we can manage on her salary. I’m very fortunate. Then again, she works full time, often overseas, which means I spend a lot of time looking after our three children. Incredibly detailed . . . with such a convincing voice that the text bears a fictionlike quality.” –Kathleen Townsend, Booklist Springfield’s fortunes have been mixed. People were divided about my admission that being alone and travelling on foot there made me afraid: some were defensive and dismissive of the impressions of a timid Englishman abroad; others were more sympathetic and saw that mostly I was expressing admiration for the city’s history and the resilience of its people.The Ruin of All Witches by Malcolm Gaskill is a great nonfictional account of a witch hunt involving Mary and Hugh Parsons in 1651 New England. It was fascinating. In 1967 on the Chantry estate in Ipswich. When I was three, we moved to Gillingham, Kent, so that’s where I spent my youth. Gaskill combines first-rate historical research with a driving narrative in this captivating study. A riveting reading. This portrait of early America fascinates.” – Publishers Weekly

Yes he covers this specific case with the specific circumstances, but it is more than that. He also delves into the historical, societal, religious, superstitious, environmental, political, and external factors that can all together create a perfect storm that can culminate into what we would now call “scapegoat” or “witch hunt”. It was utterly fascinating to see how all these factors, while independent may not be detrimental, added to create the situation that we use as an example. At times, this book reads almost like a dark fairytale, but at others it's very fact driven, almost rattled off like a list. This didn't necessarily deter from my enjoyment, but definitely halted the reading process. The Ruin of all Witches is a fascinating portrayal into an unknown history of witches within America, focusing solely on the case of Hugh and Mary Parsons within Springfield. Instead I saw exactly how terrifying and out of control their lives must have felt. How damaged and aggrieved they must have been. Ultimately, how they were actual people. Doing their best and worst, as we all are.

It's so easy to see how mental illness, illness and disease, superstition, jealousy, greed and hypocrisy paid such a part in the death of so many women (and men in some cases) The townsfolk were meant to strive ever onwards – yet to take pride in their work, their achievements, was considered sinful. Their founder, Pynchon, thought himself pious, yet was effectively a feudal lord who pitted neighbours against each other, and himself started having spiritual thoughts considered heretical. The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World by Malcolm Gaskill is shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2022. A nonfiction look at witchcraft, and more specifically a particular case in New England in the mid seventeenth century. Though told in such a detailed, atmospheric way that it was often like reading a story.

The best and most enjoyable kind of history writing. Malcolm Gaskill goes to meet the past on its own terms and in its own place…Thought-provoking and absorbing.”—Hilary Mantel, best-selling author of Wolf Hall A bona fide historical classic ... Historical writing of the very highest class, impeccably researched and written with supreme imagination and wisdom. Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times In my mind, the word ‘witch’ is often seen as gendered and synonymous with women, however in the book Hugh Parsons is accused of witchcraft along with his wife, Mary. Was it a conscious choice to position both a man as well as a woman at the heart of these accusations?

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Ugaz’s case is all too familiar in Peru, where powerful groups regularly use the courts to silence journalists by fabricating criminal allegations against them.’ At the same time, in Old England there is a resurgence in witchcraft and men and women being suspected and indeed prosecuted as witches. These suspicions soon come to New England and to Springfield. With a life of very hard work, ravaging cold winters and hot summers with droughts, close community living, poverty, little money, food and death a constant, along with strict religious behaviour the signs, are to these settlers, everywhere of God's love, displeasure and calling. Equally and as forcefully, are the temptations to stray from the path by the Devil/Satan, with his ways in luring, talking, forcing and leading people. As such suspicion falls through verbal threats, strange happenings and signs that show devilry and witchcraft is happening amongst the people of Springfield.

Comment Ian O’Doherty: Sometimes a good old horror movie is the best escape from this grim world 03:30Over time, ambition led colonists to look outwards in comparison to their neighbours who were more prosperous or held a higher social standing than them. Jealousy fuelled arguments, arguments created distrust and soon accusations of witchcraft would spread like wildfire, levied against those in the community who were seen to not be pulling their weight economically, socially, and ideologically. When peculiar things begin to happen in the frontier town of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1651, tensions rise and rumours spread of witches and heretics. What follows is a web of spite, paranoia and denunciation – a far cry from the English settlers’ dreams of love and liberty at the dawn of the New World. The historian Malcolm Gaskill retells this dark, real-life folktale of witch-hunting in The Ruin Of All Witches. Springfield, Massachusetts. This small and remote settler village 100 miles east of Boston is in the throes of being tested, challenged and indeed frightened by witchcraft. Malcolm Gaskill on witchcraft, gender-politics and being shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2022