title: Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692 (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture)
author:  Bernard Rosenthal 
description: "If you own only one book about the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, it should be this one, and if you have others, this one should be among them." Journal of American Folklore<br /><br />"This is no light historical overview as are so many accounts, but a strong story of the trials which contrasts the primary documents themselves with the myths surrounding the Salem events....Rosenthal provides a refreshingly different approach." Reviewer's Bookwatch<br /><br />"The gender-related issues are especially striking...The author's reflections on Salem's continuing symbolic resonance, make Salem Story thoroughly rewarding." PA, Times Literary Supplement<br /><br />"No doubt Rosenthal knows that myths must go on despite his laborious efforts to expose them. Still, for those interested in the trials themselves, he has performed a valuable service by sifting the evidence and telling not only the single Salem story but also the many and varied stories of the main participants. In addition, he has offered a compelling explanation for how a society fashions and cultivates--and needs--its myths." Kenneth P. Minkema, New England Quarterly<br /><br />"...should be essential reading for anyone working on the trials, and I can think of no better starting place for students of the field....A true legal thriller, Salem Story is also that rare academic work with the capacity to reach a wider popular readership." Anne G. Myles, American Literature<br /><br />"In Salem Story, Bernard Rosenthal, Professor of English at the State University of New York at Binghamton, provides a useful and methodologically somewhat different approach to the story of the Salem witch trials." Bryan Le Beau, American Studies<br /><br />"...a carefully and clearly written account....[By his] close reading of the record and its subsequent historiography Rosenthal dismantles many...assumptions (for example, adolescent female hysteria, Tituba's 'wild and strange superstitions' or the Christian martyr-figure, Rebecca Nourse) and substitutes a minimalist account of the proceedings, but one that is much more consistent with the available evidence and the applicability of theory to it....Rosenthal pays close and shrewd attention to the law as well as to theology and popular belief. The book is an instantly standard item in--and guide through--both the scholarly and popular history of the Salem trials." Choice
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  # Praise for The Witches of Storm Island, Book I: The Turning
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Watkins takes us back to the year 1685 and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  Fear, suspicion and the hushed whispers of witchcraft are rife amongst the
  Puritanical enclave. Ms. Watkins does a masterful job in bringing to life the
  daily lives of the colony’s inhabitants in this all-too-brief novella… The
  Witches of Storm Island will leave you wanting more.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ~Neil A. White for _Readers Favorite_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “The Witches of Storm Island Book I: The Turning by Linda Watkins is a
  remarkable story of the historical time of the Salem witch trials and the
  dangers that surround individuals viewed as “different.” The unexplained
  actions of persons of this time period are explored and brought to vivid
  detail that keeps the reader captivated with the injustices suffered by the
  ignorance of early American settlers in the attempt to justify heinous
  punishments that defy religious an