The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations

Rating:
Summary: not what you expect
Review: NOt really a fan of feminist criticism, this book brings to light the demonization of women whether whores or healers. How a patriarchial society allowed its communities to lash out at those who were different, strong, or resolute in their beliefs. A must read for those who want to see what has happened before and what could happen again. A great read along for this are the Malleus Maleficarum and Foucault- Crime and Punishment.

Rating:
Summary: not what you expect
Review: NOt really a fan of feminist criticism, this book brings to light the demonization of women whether whores or healers. How a patriarchial society allowed its communities to lash out at those who were different, strong, or resolute in their beliefs. A must read for those who want to see what has happened before and what could happen again. A great read along for this are the Malleus Maleficarum and Foucault- Crime and Punishment.

Rating:
Summary: I disagree
Review: The reader before me seems to have missed the point of Purkiss's work. To "not be a fan of feminist criticism" and then to portray this text as an appeal to reductive notions of patriarchal oppression seems a contradiction in terms, and more to the point, it sells the book short.

Purkiss's work is extraordinary because it is NOT reductive, nor is it a positivist indictment of less "enlightened" times, as she states explicitly. Purkiss uses primary sources to understand the intricate religious, social, and judicial forces which shaped the persecution of "witches". She unfolds the complexity of witch categories (not limited to the fringes of society) and persecution (not limited to the hands of men) while at the same time exploring early modern male discomfort with the female body and related tropes of misogyny. Incidentally, Umberto Eco does much of the same in his deeply researched novels, vis-a-vis heretics. Purkiss's book succeeds in breaking sorely needed middle ground between unsympathetic historical accuracy and freewheeling radical feminist and Wiccan appetites for the experience of the witch-figure.

The main shortcoming of Purkiss's work is an overreliance on exclusively British source material, especially in the book's specialized final chapters, leaving the Continental Inquisition out of the picture to a large extent. Nonetheless, Purkiss's important contribution here is the theoretical headway which broader scholarship will no doubt find useful.

Rating:
Summary: I disagree
Review: The reader before me seems to have missed the point of Purkiss's work. To "not be a fan of feminist criticism" and then to portray this text as an appeal to reductive notions of patriarchal oppression seems a contradiction in terms, and more to the point, it sells the book short.

Purkiss's work is extraordinary because it is NOT reductive, nor is it a positivist indictment of less "enlightened" times, as she states explicitly. Purkiss uses primary sources to understand the intricate religious, social, and judicial forces which shaped the persecution of "witches". She unfolds the complexity of witch categories (not limited to the fringes of society) and persecution (not limited to the hands of men) while at the same time exploring early modern male discomfort with the female body and related tropes of misogyny. Incidentally, Umberto Eco does much of the same in his deeply researched novels, vis-a-vis heretics. Purkiss's book succeeds in breaking sorely needed middle ground between unsympathetic historical accuracy and freewheeling radical feminist and Wiccan appetites for the experience of the witch-figure.

The main shortcoming of Purkiss's work is an overreliance on exclusively British source material, especially in the book's specialized final chapters, leaving the Continental Inquisition out of the picture to a large extent. Nonetheless, Purkiss's important contribution here is the theoretical headway which broader scholarship will no doubt find useful.

Rating:
Summary: Ms.Purkiss research refutes "popular" witchcraft history
Review: This book affirmed for me that the history of women and witchcraft should be told from a disciplines perspective, as well as by someone who has researched the social history of the era. Ms. Purkiss refutes such "popular"& "New Age" researchers, whose evidence/research are in question. Starhawk, Barbara G. Walker, Barbara Ehrenreich, among others wrongly paint a portrait of the witch in history. Ms.Purkiss helped me regain my path of knowledge after being led astray-she did it so conclusively that I could not regain my composure for days. Thank goodness there are people like her out there, or women's history in Western Civilization could get out of hand with lies and media stereotypes.