Rating: 
Summary: Not bad but...
Review: Not a bad book to begin with, but not something that is going to interest people above 'apprentice' level. The extensive bibliography has some good suggetions. Decent. I recommend it as a starting place for only for serious students. The only people I wouldn't recommend it to are those who confuse witchcraft (not a religion) for Wicca (a religion) (we don't want to offend those who want to white wash 'magic' and the occult).I recommend anything by R. Cavendish as a better read.
Rating: 
Summary: keeping the details to a bare minimum
Review: Raising Hell: A Concise History of the Black Arts and Those Who Dared Practice Them by Robert Masello is an concise but comprehensive overview of the history of occult arts throughout the centuries, filled with interesting stories and creative characters in search of power beyond their control. The book is divided into several distinct sections, each dealing with a specific aspect of the occult arts, giving the reader a wonderful glimpse into the powers which lie in the great beyond. Although it makes mention of numerous sources and reference material, by keeping the details to a bare minimum he only serves to wet one's whistle on the nature of his survey, making readers want to delve deeper into regions unknown. A great start for people interested in the occult but don't know where to start.
Rating:
Summary: If you like black arts, you'll love this!
Review: Robert Masello is excellent on his writing and knowledge of the occults. After reading "Fallen Angels...and Spirits of the Dark", I couldn't get enough of the author. Raising Hell was everything but a disapointment.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and concise historical description of sects.
Review: The best book of it's kind that I have seen. A succinct overview of numerous historical sects, traditions, and so fourth from Crowley, the Golden Dawn Tradition, the Gnostics, Simon Magus, and others. This is an excellent book to attain the historical and real points that each of these orders possessed. This book elicits many hidden facts about these people and sects and is excellent for anyone to attain a fundamental study of the various types of occult knowledge there is today in the world. Also demonstrated in this work of art is how most of modern technology came from these profound occultists. From astrologists paving the way to astronomers, to the alchemists developing the steel industry in their futile attempts to change base metals into gold and silver. For other historical books of this kind, check Angel Magic, which is not as clear, but still good. -For further disucssion of this book e-mail me-
Rating: 
Summary: Christian-slanted propaganda and foolish drivel
Review: The only good thing about the book is that it made a good stabilizer (the perfect width to keep my table sturdy.) The book is obviously written for those self-righteous beings who have decided to have a 'one-week-long-wild-side'. Masello is obviously a rookie to the scene and is looking to score a quick buck on the new 'occult is cool' market. Poor work on such a fascinating and powerful subject.
Rating:
Summary: Raising Hell? How about "Misunderstanding Hell"?
Review: The subtitle of this book, "A Concise History of the Black Arts", is adequately chosen indeed, since about seventy percent of Masello's book is taken, in some instances almost verbatim, from the book "The Black Arts" by Richard Cavendish. Quotes, anecdotes, even examples given or questions asked in "The Black Arts" return with a savour faire in "Raising Hell", severely hampering the reading enjoyment and learning, and having very little new to add.
Now, this is not a good book. Masello either treats subject matter that has been treated better and more thoroughly in "The Black Arts" (and this book antedates "Raising Hell" almost 30 years!). The remaining writing seems info that has been snatched from encyclopedias, book blurbs, or other pop occult books, and is very shallow. For instance, Masello very superficially explores 'secret societies' such as Freemasons, Templars, Rosicrucians, etc., devoting about a page and half to each of them, giving some quick info about how/when they emerged, what they supposedly did, and who had a bone to pick with them. There's no analysis, there is no further investigation (resulting in some errors here and there), no association with other events or orders. Five minutes and a web browser will give you more detailed and interesting knowledge.
Since this is clearly a pop book it also has some rather toe-crooking 'humor' and jokes that doesn't befit the subject. In fact, my personal opinion is that approaches such as these to occult philosophy, hermetism, alchemy, and mysticism are for a large portion to blame for the well-nigh absense of academic or serious interest in the shadowy side of our history of thought and experience. From our (though decaying) typically western rational ideologies and philosophy we do not look kindly upon "irrational" practices such as The Black Arts, and hapfully bestow them on deluded mortals, heretics, madmen, deceivers, or circus artists, oblivious to the intertwining of occult philosophy and thought with our history, from pre-Biblical times to the Enlightenment and beyond.
Apart from some nice reproductions of illuminated art, this book has very little to offer to anyone that has either a strong interest, scholarly attention, or just someone that wants a quick read on 'Black Arts'. Cavendish's broad-sweeping study "The Black Arts" still is an authoritative and daring introduction into something as confusing and intruiging as occult philosophy. Go for that one instead, and leave this one behind.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book about the Black Atrs
Review: This book explains in detail about the history about the Black Arts and those who practiced them. It has explained everything to me in aclear, concise manner. I now have abetter understanding of the black arts. This book is hard for me to put down and is very interesting toread. I truly recommend this book to anyone who is curious about the black arts.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a bad start
Review: This book is a great resource for anyone who is just starting his or her study of the history of black magick. It gives an overview of some of the darker practices and the bigger personalities involved. I give it three stars because only half the book is really about black magick. The rest is about occult practices that I don't believe fall under the heading, such as alchemy, divination and dream interpretation. It would have been nice if Masello had used that space to go into more detail about what the magicians actually did, but it is still an interesting historical study of the occult.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent For Beginners!
Review: This book is a history of the black arts, and those who practiced them, as the title states. It goes into everything from alchemism to palmistry, to raising demons, to wizardry, and much more, with excellent examples and stories as well. The books format was easy to follow, easy to understand, and yet still managed to provide a cornecopia of information. I found this book quite fascinating, I found it very difficult to put down. Trust me, I'm a pretty harsh judge of books, I don't hand out 5 stars for it unless theres something there. This book is a definate "must buy" if you, like myself, are generally new to the studies of the occult.
Rating:
Summary: Readers are better off researching this themselfs
Review: This book is definitely for naughty teenagers who wanna know about black magic. The information in this book seems to be from an outsider's point of veiw, which is to say i doubt the author has any practical experience in the practice of magic. The book passes on the same drawn out rumors and could be likened to John Symonds, whom he obviously used as research for the Great Beast exposition. Its entertaning at most, insightful, its not. Also i must add that every single magician in history wasnt guilty of black magic.
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