While I love The Crucible (Penguin Classics Series), I read Miller's play as a parable about the HUAC hearings of the 1950s as much as about the Salem witch trials. This book, Salem Possessed, gives a social and political explanation of the witch trials. The authors marshal historical evidence to contend that the witch trials were the result of a clash between two different factions, one wanting more autonomy between the two parts of Salem, and another wanting the two parts to be more dependent on each other. While this book does not (in my mind at least) answer all the questions about the witch trials (and I freely admit that this particular historical approach will not satisfy everyone), if anyone's looking for something non-fiction to read, I wanted to suggest it.
Melissa_W
I read it when I was in grade school; Newbery winners were highly encouraged in school.
Here's the product page at bn.com - there are 209 ratings and 193 reviews. 
ponie wrote:
Anyone read The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare?
I read it with my girls when they were in middle school and remember liking it very much.
Lynda:
I have read and enjoyed The Dante Club. I was looking forward to Matthew Pearl's
next book, The Poe Shadow; however, the reviews were not too good. I don't usually
let reviews influence my decisions but, in this case it did.
As a result, I did not purchase
nor read the Poe Shadow. I just purchased the Last Dickens and have added it to my
TBR pile. It may be some time until I am able to read it - the TBR pile is quite large.
I would give the Dante Club a read and if you enjoy it, try the others.
CathyB
Carmenere_lady wrote:I'm so glad you brought up Matthew Pearl, Debs. I've never read him but he's got the new book out regarding Dickens and some other books that look interesting. The reviews however are mixed. Can you tell me which book of his you liked the best or which one would be a good starting point for someone new to his writing? Thanx
DebsScott wrote:Thanks for the link ponie! Great site (and wonderful review by Matthew Pearl...I love his books). It makes me more excited to get the book! Hurry, hurry!!!
ponie wrote:Since this is not a welcome or introduction, perhaps it is best posted here in community...
while waiting for TPBODD check this out...I came upon it while looking up the meaning of "physick"...
It doesn't spoil anything so I think it is OK but if it is not OK to put this here, someone let me know. (and sorry)
Personal note: This post is based on my experiences as a family law attorney in Washington State at the time of the Wenatchee, Wn. Satanic ritual abuse cases. There was much discussion among family law attorneys here about the case and its broader implications for the work we did with families and children. I have ever since had to walk a fine line between believing the reports of children involved in the cases I dealt with, and understanding that such reports can be manipulated and even created by those with an incentive to do so. I know that this subject is disturbing to some people, but it will have to be an element of our discussion of the Salem Witch Trials in this book discussion.
As we read about the Salem Witch Trials, we should keep in mind that accusations of demonic possession by child witnesses are not exclusive to 17th century New England. Lest we get complacent about how much more sophisticated and intelligent we are than those backward folks, let's remember the McMartin preschool case in Manhattan Beach, California only twenty years or so ago, with accusations of Satanism, ritual murder of infants, drinking blood, and secret tunnels where Satanic rites took place. As it turned out eventually, none of this was true, but the lives of those who were falsely accused were ruined.
Then there were the Wenatchee Satanic cases, detailed in this book,
Again, lives were ruined by accusations of Satanic abuse by children which turned out to be dubious at best.
Some information about contemporary claims of Satanic rituals and, as Geraldo Riveria claimed on television, grisly Satanic murders, can be found here. (If you find this site's red on black text hard to read, as I did, try turning off the page style in your browser for this site. In Firefox, go to View/Page Style/No Style. Don't forget to turn it back on after you leave the site! I don't know how to do it in IE, but I'm sure there's an option.)
There are, indeed, still today a number of people who belive that witchcraft and Satanic ritual abuse are prevalent in our society, and would like nothing more than a new round of witch trials to root these demonic presences out of our society. A search of the Internet will turn up many sites which contend that Satanic Ritual Abuse is still going on in the country today. Here's just one fairly typical site.
The whole issue of the reliability of child reports of abuse is well discussed in this book:
The authors discuss in detail the issues of child testimony, both the basis for believing it to be highly reliable and the concerns about the manipulation of memories and tesimony by those with both good intentions and bad. While written mostly for a professional audience, it may be worth borrowing from a library and skimming, particulary for its treatment of the Salem Witch Trials.
My point is simply this. As we discuss the Salem Witch Trial aspects of our First Look book (and I don't know how prominent they are in the book, not having received my copy yet), let's not deal with it just as a historical anomaly with no relevance to today's world, but as the first documented instance in this country of a pattern of child testimony about Satanic ritual abuse which is ongoing even today, and which has both ruined innoncent lives and helped convict the guilty ever since.
