The war on witchcraft: Andrew Dickson White, George Lincoln Burr, and the origins of witchcraft historiography
Historians of the early modern witch-hunt often begin histories of their field with the theories propounded by Margaret Murray and Montague Summers in the 1920s. They overlook the lasting impact of nineteenth-century scholarship, in particular the contributions by two American historians, Andrew Dic...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Book |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge
Cambridge University Press
2021
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| In: | Year: 2021 |
| Series/Journal: | Cambridge elements. Elements in Magic
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| Further subjects: | B
White, Andrew Dickson (1832-1918)
B Witchcraft Historiography B Burr, George Lincoln (1857-1938) |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Erscheint auch als: 9781108948746 |
| Summary: | Historians of the early modern witch-hunt often begin histories of their field with the theories propounded by Margaret Murray and Montague Summers in the 1920s. They overlook the lasting impact of nineteenth-century scholarship, in particular the contributions by two American historians, Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918) and George Lincoln Burr (1857-1938). Study of their work and scholarly personae contributes to our understanding of the deeply embedded popular understanding of the witch-hunt as representing an irrational past in opposition to an enlightened present. Yet the men's relationship with each other, and with witchcraft sceptics - the heroes of their studies - also demonstrates how their writings were part of a larger war against 'unreason'. This Element thus lays bare the ways scholarly masculinity helped shape witchcraft historiography, a field of study often seen as dominated by feminist scholarship. Such meditation on past practice may foster reflection on contemporary models of history writing. |
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| Item Description: | Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 30 Jun 2021) |
| ISBN: | 110895331X |
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/9781108953313 |