Witch-Hunting in Scotland: Law, Politics and Religion

by Brian P. Levack

Shortlisted for the 2008 Katharine Briggs Award Witch-Hunting in Scotland presents a fresh perspective on the trial and execution of the hundreds of women and men prosecuted for the crime of witchcraft, an offence that involved the alleged practice of maleficent magic and the worship of the devil, for inflicting harm on their neighbours and making pacts with the devil. Brian P. Levack draws on law, politics and religion to explain the intensity of Scottish witch-hunting. Topics discussed This original survey combines broad interpretations of the rise and fall of Scottish witchcraft prosecutions with detailed case studies of specific witch-hunts. Witch-Hunting in Scotland makes fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in witchcraft or in the political, legal and religious history of the early modern period.

Genres: Witchcraft, History, Nonfiction, Research

232 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2007

About the author

Brian Levack is John E. Green Regents Professor in History and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. The winner of several teaching awards, Levack offers a wide variety of courses on early modern British and European history, legal history, and the history of witchcraft. For eight years he served as the chair of his department. His books include The Civil Lawyers in England, 1603-1641: A Political Study(1973), The Formation of the British State: England, Scotland and the Union, 1603-1707(1987); The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (3rd edition, 2006), which has been translated into eight languages; and Witch-Hunting in Scotland: Law, Politics, and Religion(2008). His newest book is The Devil Within: Possessions and Exorcism in the Christian West.

Reviews

[Leiki Fae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this for a class, but otherwise I think if you listened to the BBC Scotland Witch Hunt podcast, you'd get the gist. To be fair, this was a very accessible and interesting book, so if you don't need to write a paper about it, you could just read it for fun. It's not very long, like 200 pages, and full of interesting anecdotes as well as historical analysis.

[brynne rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

witch-hunting is my roman empire