Rating: 
Summary: A Fantastic Study of the Salem Crisis.
Review: Many authors have studied the Witch Trials that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692, but none has analyzed contemporary events that shaped the lives of the trials' participants seeking to explain how such hysteria could have gripped the population. 'In The Devil's Snare; The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692' does just that, and is a fantastically detailed account of the Trials and events surrounding them.
Mary Beth Norton, who holds the position of Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History at Cornell and is one of America's most respected historians, has here presented the most complete analysis of the Trials to date. Norton's highly detailed account relies on exhaustive research of surviving texts, both public and private, relating not only to the trials' proceedings but also historical information regarding life in the Bay Colony and on the frontier. She chronicles the wars between the colonists and the Wabanaki Indians, showing how the many battles and massacres preyed upon the minds of the colonists, causing them to be suspicious and fearful, and demonstrating many cross references between events in the Trials and the Indian war. Norton also delves into the social status of women and men at the time of the Trials, illustrating how the Trials gave a group of young women power and prestige in their male-dominated society. Professor Norton completes the book with an impressive series of appendices, including lists of Cases Heard by the Court of Oyer and Terminer, Participants in the Crisis with Ties to the Frontier, etc., etc.
'In the Devil's Snare' should appeal to any with an interest in history in general and especially to those interested in early Colonial history, and is the most complete treatment available of the Salem Witch Trials.
Rating: 
Summary: well researched and fascinating, but slow going
Review: I agree with other reviewers who said this was not an easy read. The book is heavily footnoted and filled with quotes rendered in late-17th century English. And, of course, the subject matter is disturbing and unsettling. Nevertheless, I'm glad I read it.This book focuses on the infamous Salem witch trials...one of the more unfortunate periods of early American history. But unlike other books on the subject, it focuses on a previously overlooked aspect of the trials--how the ongoing French and native american raids against English settlers likely influenced both the accusers and accused. The fact is, many of the individuals involved in the trials had either experienced loss of property or family members during a raid, or had in some way profited (or been suspected of profiting) through dealings with native americans. The psychological toll of these skirmishes must have been heavy...and given the difficulties that some of the young accusers experienced (one girl lost over a dozen family members in a single raid) it's no wonder that they may have started taking their anger out against potentially guilty citizens in the only way left open to them. This is a well-researched book filled with a lot of details about the period. And whether you agree or disagree with the author's conclusion, she does raise some points that are difficult to ignore.
Rating:
Summary: THE definitve work on the Salem witch crisis.
Review: It is hard to imagine that Prof. Norton's narrative and analysis of the Salem witch crisis will be surpassed anytime soon. This book re-examines an episode in American colonial history that many other historians have tried to tackle. What makes Norton's book special is the care with which she has combed through the primary sources and the skill with which she sifts the data in arriving at what is, for my money, the best explanation of the Massachusetts tragedy. As Norton points out, the Salem witchcraft episode involved many more people, and was much more intense, than any other such episode in America or England. Her central explanation for Salem's "uniqueness" is that, in Massachusetts in 1692, there was a fatal concurrence of New Englanders' belief in witchery and the supernatural, renewed war against northern New England settlements by the French and the Wabanaki Indians, and a series of military disasters for Massachusetts (including the wiping out of several villages). Although, as Norton readily acknowledges, this theory was advanced by other historians in scholarly articles in the 1980s, no one had previously attempted to flesh out the theory fully and examine the entire, sad series of events in light of it. Not only does Norton do a fantastic job as a scholar, but she also is (contrary to what some Amazon reviewers have said) quite a good writer. I only wish all scholarly works were written with Norton's careful craftsmanship and scorn for pseudo-intellectual gobbledygook. The book also includes excellent and helpful maps, appendixes, and index. It should be noted as well that Norton is amazingly generous in her acknowledgements (in her notes and elsewhere) to all the researchers and even graduate students who gave her ideas and data. She sets a fine example for other historians. I wouldn't think that this book would be beyond the capacity of anyone with a college education. Some of the other reviews, unfortunately, show that my estimate of the reading public may be too high. I suppose that, if you just want to be titillated and not have to think too hard, there are other books you should buy. But, if you really want to understand an important and notorious series of events in American history, then this is the book to read.
Rating:
Summary: THE definitve work on the Salem witch crisis.
Review: It is hard to imagine that Prof. Norton's narrative and analysis of the Salem witch crisis will be surpassed anytime soon. This book re-examines an episode in American colonial history that many other historians have tried to tackle. What makes Norton's book special is the care with which she has combed through the primary sources and the skill with which she sifts the data in arriving at what is, for my money, the best explanation of the Massachusetts tragedy. As Norton points out, the Salem witchcraft episode involved many more people, and was much more intense, than any other such episode in America or England. Her central explanation for Salem's "uniqueness" is that, in Massachusetts in 1692, there was a fatal concurrence of New Englanders' belief in witchery and the supernatural, renewed war against northern New England settlements by the French and the Wabanaki Indians, and a series of military disasters for Massachusetts (including the wiping out of several villages). Although, as Norton readily acknowledges, this theory was advanced by other historians in scholarly articles in the 1980s, no one had previously attempted to flesh out the theory fully and examine the entire, sad series of events in light of it. Not only does Norton do a fantastic job as a scholar, but she also is (contrary to what some Amazon reviewers have said) quite a good writer. I only wish all scholarly works were written with Norton's careful craftsmanship and scorn for pseudo-intellectual gobbledygook. The book also includes excellent and helpful maps, appendixes, and index. It should be noted as well that Norton is amazingly generous in her acknowledgements (in her notes and elsewhere) to all the researchers and even graduate students who gave her ideas and data. She sets a fine example for other historians. I wouldn't think that this book would be beyond the capacity of anyone with a college education. Some of the other reviews, unfortunately, show that my estimate of the reading public may be too high. I suppose that, if you just want to be titillated and not have to think too hard, there are other books you should buy. But, if you really want to understand an important and notorious series of events in American history, then this is the book to read.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Blending of Frontier and Witchcraft History
Review: Mary Beth Norton has managed to take an oft-examined event, the Salem Witchraft Crisis of 1692, and added a fresh perspective to it. In the Devil's Snare is a fascinating book. It is not as thrilling and easy to read as some other histories of the event (such as the re-released Francis Hill book) but looking at the conflict on the frontiers of the territories with the Indians and its impact on pushing the witchcraft crisis to greater heights will interest those who have read other accounts. The fit is not always perfect but it does give one much to consider. The book is well researched and of particular interest will be the gossip networks unearthed by the author showing how information was spread from distant counties. It's a small New England world after all. A fresh look at a horrific event and strongly recommended for anyone wishing to understand this event.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: Mary Beth Norton's scholarly works are always a wonderful source of historical information. For those who are interested in how really different the times were and how people thought and
lived, this book is for you. You might say this book is a mixture of historical information (and interpretation) and social anthropology. Or, you might not say that - but, in my opinion, it will appeal to you if you like getting down to the nitty gritty of an historical period and finding information that will help you understand why people believed what they did in that period. However, the book looks more at the society as a whole and the individual's place within it, than the individual's psyche or inner life.
For those who are looking for just a good read about "witches" or horrific details, there
are other books that will serve you better. I loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: dreadful turgid tome
Review: Norton's book is not pleasurable reading, in the sense that it's difficult to get through. There are so many names and so many references, you just can't get a smooth read going. However, it's so much better than the typical colonial american history book, it's worth the trouble. The witchraft hysteria has never been adequately explained, until now. Norton traces the accused and accusers to coastal Maine, where attacks by both French and native americans took a heavy toll in the 1670s and '80s, causing severe emotional trauma and generating gossip. Most coastal Maine families moved to northeast Massachusetts, to towns like Salem, Andover, Boxford, Haverhill, etc. and the accusers tended to come from them. It's the only explanation that makes any sense. Previous attempts to portray the hysteria as resulting from economic divisions were never able to make sense of the judges sending twenty innocent people to their deaths with only the vaguest of evidence.
Rating:
Summary: Tedious book
Review: The only reason I am reading this book is because it is mandatory for my American history class in college. I am on page 139, and Mary Norton has still not even remotely reached an accessible theory. I don't know if she's going to or not. One can only hope. To say this is the worst book I've ever read would be an exaggeration, but not a great one. Mary Norton CANNOT make a cohesive point. She rambles extensively and flips about in time, so even if you were familiar enough with the story to know what happened, you'd still probably have a hard time following this account. It's nearly impossible to keep track of what's going on, and just when you think you might have a weak grasp on the story, she goes into a completely unrelated topic. I think she is trying to link them together, but the book moves so incredibly slowly that by the time you've finished a page, you've forgotten what happened before then. It's just a singularly dry (and under-edited) account of an interesting incident in history. I would not recommend this book for voluntary reading.
Rating:
Summary: Review from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 24, 2002
Review: The Salem witchcraft hysteria that began in 1692 has for 300 years been the subject of much discussion, interpretation, and reinterpretation. In her book, Norton offers a new explanation of this widely discussed episode. She assigns central importance to fears caused by the Indian Wars and finds connections between the terrors of American's Second Indian War and the colonial authorities' endorsement of the trials. Norton argues that massacres of colonists by during the Second Indian War and the colonial government's failure to effectively counter such killings were the main precipitators of the witchcraft trials. Using newly available materials from the trial records, letters and diaries, she argues that the complexity of political, military and religious factors led to the outbreak of hysterical fits that ended in the infamous trials.
The contemporary Puritan worldview insisted that the military failures of such notable officials as chief judge William Stroughton and Sir William Phips indicated God's displeasure with the New England colonies. As Norton demonstrates, the settlers saw the First and Second Indian Wars and their resulting loss of prosperity as God's punishment for their sins. In April 1692, as these losses mounted, several teenage girls began having fits that were attributed to the devil, to witches and to Indians. The colonists thus found themselves being punished both by visible spirits (Indians) and invisible ones (the devil). In an unusual turn of events, the magistrates of the village took the testimony of these women who normally were not given any political or judicial authority and began the trials. Furthermore, many of the Salem accusers had suffered personal losses at the hands of brutal native tribes. In her analysis of war fears and spiritual hysteria, the author concludes that the state's leaders were all too willing to believe allegations of witchcraft, which they convinced themselves was evidence of Satan's rather than their own incompetence.
Norton provides a detailed account of the ways 17th-century men and women would have thought about the terrible events. Norton does not simply write another history of the crisis, but she looks at the unfair trails from a 17th-century perspective. She quickly uncovers a number of historical threads that have not previously been explored by scholars. Norton, who is a feminist scholar, blames the Massachusetts governor, councils, and judges for the executions of innocent Salem "witches."
In this book Norton provides a detailed and well-researched description of the era as well as historical background information. I do not know whether I should agree with all of Norton's arguments, but she certainly raises some interesting questions that one cannot ignore. I would recommend Norton's book to everyone who wants to learn more about the Salem witch hunt from a new perspective. Previous knowledge on the Salem witch hunt crisis would be an advantage when reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Review from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 24, 2002
Review: This week, as Halloween approaches, thousands of tourists will descend upon Salem, Massachusetts, a town that has become synonymous with witches, broomsticks and all things spooky. For obvious commercial reasons, Salem officials have embraced this image despite the fact that few people today actually believe that any of the nineteen alleged witches who were hanged in Salem in 1692 actually practiced witchcraft. Instead, thanks to Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, as well as movies and countless books, the hysteria that swept through late seventeenth-century Salem and the trials and executions that followed have become a metaphor for all legal prosecutions run amok. Salem's witchcraft crisis is viewed by many as an instance when fear, ignorance, and intolerance led normally sober-minded Puritans to turn on one another in an accusatory delirium.
Although historians uniformly agree that the Salem witchcraft trials were a tragic miscarriage of justice, there are still sharp disputes over what actually happened in Salem in 1692. The devil, as it were, is in the details. What, for example, caused the fits and seizures that afflicted Salem's young women and led the village's doctor to conclude that Satan had possessed them? Some scholars have suggested that the girls suffered from encephalitis, or from hallucinations caused by ergot fungus that poisoned the town's wheat. Others have asserted that the accusers were attention starved delinquents who simply faked most, if not all, of their ailments.
Scholars also have asked why it was that Salem's leaders were so willing to believe the accusations of witchcraft leveled by a group comprised mostly of teenage girls. Salem was, after all, a rigidly patriarchal society in which young women had minimal status. Why were the girls' increasingly outrageous allegations, including those made against some of Salem's most reputable citizens, treated with such credulity? Because, many historians have concluded, Salem was a town that had long been divided by bitter religious, political and property disputes. Salem's citizens were eager to accept charges of witchcraft, these scholars conclude, because they had long suspected the worst of their neighbors.
With "In The Devil's Snare," Cornell historian Mary Beth Norton, steps into the fray. Norton believes that many previous accounts of the Salem crisis have focused too closely on Salem itself. To truly understand what happened there, she argues, one has to recognize that Puritans throughout New England during this time were living in a state of fear. Between 1688 and 1692, Norton writes, the Puritan colonies had suffered a series of bloody military setbacks at the hands of the French and their Native-American allies. Indian raids had destroyed a number of prosperous Puritan villages along the Maine coast and the attackers had shown little mercy towards women, children, and non-combatants. Stories circulated quickly throughout Massachusetts that described the gruesome carnage and Puritan families, as a result, lived in a world filled with tales of torture, disembowelings, and crushed skulls. Several of the key accusers in the witchcraft trials were refugees from the Maine frontier and, as Norton suggests, it is easy to imagine why they believed that Satan was near.
The Puritans lived in a pre-Enlightenment, pre-industrial society where, Norton writes, the "visible and invisible world often intersected". "When they encountered harmful events that otherwise seemed inexplicable," she notes, "New Englanders often concluded that a malevolent witch had caused their troubles." In normal circumstances, however, formal legal allegations of witchcraft against specific individuals seldom arose and when they did authorities treated them with caution. But in the "supercharged" atmosphere of 1692, the fits experienced by the young women led many to fear that the colony faced the devil's assaults on the frontier and within Salem itself. When the afflicted girls proceeded to accuse prominent men such as John Alden and George Burroughs of both bewitching them and conspiring with the Indians "the assaults from the visible and invisible worlds became closely intertwined in New Englanders' minds."
Norton is not the first historian, of course, to note that the Indian raids made the Puritan colonists unusually apprehensive. But what Norton has done that other historians have not is carefully assemble a substantial body of evidence that reveals that the residents of Salem explicitly linked the Maine massacres with the witchcraft allegations. Because Salem residents thought that the devil was attacking on two fronts simultaneously, Norton concludes, the judges in the witchcraft trials operated on a wartime footing. Their job, they believed, was to root out and destroy witches at home who were aiding Satan's armies on the frontier. During the witchcraft trials they zealously pursued this goal, ignoring key common law protections for the accused, and treating the defendants as if they were guilty unless proven innocent.
In the process of mustering her evidence, Norton also debunks some of the myths that have surrounded the witchcraft affair. She, for example, fully exonerates Tituba, the Indian slave who some chroniclers have alleged led the young women of Salem in Barbados-influenced witchcraft ceremonies. The girls, so the story goes, slipped into a guilt-driven hysteria after Salem adults learned of their behavior. But Tituba, Norton found, was neither a devotee of voodou or from the Caribbean. Instead, Norton cogently argues, the accusers implicated Tituba first because she was an enslaved Native-American living amidst a population then acutely afraid of Indian attacks.
"In the Devil's Snare" is a compelling, meticulous, and convincing account of one of the most disturbing episodes of the colonial period. Norton's conclusion that a fear of outside threats led Salem's leaders to overzealously pursue supposed domestic enemies is both new and important. And although she cautions that the witchcraft trials can only be fully understood when viewed within the context of their times, many readers will nevertheless find that a cautionary message for the present day resonates throughout the pages of her book.
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