The story of a family tragedy brought about by witch-hunting in Puritan New England that combines history, anthropology, sociology, politics, theology and psychology.
Gaskill patiently lays out the deterioration of conditions in Springfield, year by year, bad crop by bad crop ... Scrupulously recreating the atmosphere of the times, he largely refuses to cast judgment or to supply distracting modern diagnoses of any mental illnesses that may have been at work. Instead, as he says in a note on his sources and methods, he 'treats witchcraft as witchcraft: a category unstable in 1650 and ever since at risk of being explained away as fraud, hysteria or delusion' ... His tale is never less than riveting ... provides a deft example of how a historian can avoid 'presentism,' the practice of examining the past through a contemporary perspective, and inhabit a reality different from ours by 'suspending hindsight.' As for his story’s relevance, Gaskill never mentions Donald Trump and his cries of 'Witch hunt!' or his QAnon fantasies. He doesn’t have to. Whatever hallucinations are arising from our current state, like smoke from a fire, it’s obvious they’re not much different from what was going up the chimney in the 1600s.
... a brilliant, unforgettable portrait of a small, beleaguered community in New England in the 17th century. People distanced from us by four centuries, and an almost entirely alien world-view, live again as real, flawed, deeply sympathetic human beings ... reads like a sombre parable as much as a history at times, a fable of almost Conradian power ... Whether you read The Ruin of All Witches for a startling insight into another age, or see its portrait of mob hysteria and witch-hunts as darkly analogous to our own uneasy times, this is one of those rare history books that stays with you and haunts you long after you have turned the last page. Superb.
... powerfully evocative ... Gaskill is an emeritus professor at the University of East Anglia and already the author of several books on witchcraft. This one, however, is a little less academic and a little more novelistic. He describes The Ruin of All Witches as a 'micro-history', using one specific episode to teach broader lessons about superstition, mental illness and human cruelty ... Gaskill’s narrative carefully builds up the suspense by drip-feeding us important developments. Suffice to say that this is a grimly compelling morality tale with more than one unexpected twist. It has a supporting cast of vivid characters ... Gaskill’s impressively wide range of sources include letters, diaries, sermons, pamphlets and court records. Most importantly, he creates an immersive atmosphere by describing in raw, visceral detail how these people actually lived ... Just occasionally, Gaskill stretches his imagination a little too far ... an outstanding achievement, haunting, revelatory and superbly written — a strong contender for the best history book of 2021.
