title: Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft
author: Paul Boyer
description: An illuminating and imaginative interpretationof the social and moral state of Salem village in 1692. Provides an admirable illustration of the general rule that, in Old and New England alike, much of the best sociological history of the twentieth century has only been made possible by the antiquarian and genealogical interests of the nineteenth This sensitive, intelligent, and well-written book will certainly revive interest in the terrible happenings at Salem.<b><i></i></b><b>Keith Thomas</b><b>, </b><b><i>New York Review of Books</i></b><br /><br />A provocative book. Drawing upon an impressive range of unpublished local sources, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum provide a challenging new interpretation of the outbreak of witchcraft in Salem Village. They argue that previous historians erroneously divorced the tragic events of 1692 from the long-term development of the village and therefore failed to realize that the witch trials were simply one particularly violent chapter in a series of local controversies dating back to the 1660s. In their reconstruction of the socio-economic conditions that contributed to the intense factionalism in Salem Village, Boyer and Nissenbaum have made a major contribution to the social history of colonial New England [They] have provided us with a first-rate discussion of factionalism in a seventeenth-century New England community. Their handling of economic, familial, and spatial relationships within Salem Village is both sophisticated and imaginative.<b><i></i></b><b>T. H. Breen</b><b>, </b><b><i>William and Mary Quarterly</i></b><br /><br />This is an inner history of Salem Village that aims to raise the events of 1692 from melodrama to tragedy It is a large achievement. This book is progressive history at its best, with brilliant insights, well-organized evidence, maps, and footnotes at the bottom of the page.<b><i></i></b><b>Cedric B. Cowing</b><b>, </b><b><i>American Historical Review</i></b><br /><br />The authors whole approach to the Salem disaster is canny, rewarding, and sure to fascinate readers interested in that aberrant affair.<b><i></i></b><b><i>The Atlantic</i></b><br /><br />This short book is a solid contribution to the understanding of the 1692 witch trials. The authors use impressively rich demographic detail to support the thesis that the witch trials are best explained as symptoms of typical social tensions in provincial towns at the time. According to Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem villagers played roles determined by economic, geographic, and status interests.<b><i></i></b><b>Richard Ekman</b><b>, </b><b><i>Canadian Historical Review</i></b><br /><br />An important, imaginative book that brings new insights to the study of the 1692 witchcraft outbreak in Massachusetts. Building on Charles Uphams <i>Salem Witchcraft</i> (1867), Boyer and Nissenbaum explore decades of community tension and conflict in order to explain why Salem was the focus of this episode. The authors reveal a complex set of relationships between persons allied with the growing mercantile interests of Salem Town and those linked to the subsistence-based economy of outlying Salem Village.<b><i></i></b><b>Carol Karlsen</b><b>, </b><b><i>Journal of Women in Culture and Society</i></b>
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  1
  Black Witchcraft 
   Foundations of the Luciferian Path 
  By Michael W. Ford, Akhtya Seker Arimanius 
   
  The nature of ‘Skir-hand’ Witchcraft in the ancient and modern world is 
  of anti-nature, or rather the word “Antinomian” is a greek form meaning 
  “against the law”. This word makes reference to rebellion from a 
  structure or spiritual design of the masses, the majority and whatever 
  the current ideological mainstream may be at that time. Witchcraft, no 
  matter for what intent or form, has always stood outside any 
  conventional acceptance within society – either by the religious hierarchy 
  (even though it keeps their organizations called Church together and 
  making money) or even governmental ones. To provide a distinct 
  understanding of Luciferian Witchcraft from which I am an initiate of, I 
  must write directly of experience and the vision which all initiates, past, 
  present or secret, have brought to the current and how it manifests 
  today. No longer should those of Luciferian nat