Focusing on witchcraft reports and trials outside of Salem and utilizing case histories and psychological analyses, this study evaluates the incidents and trials within the context of late-seventeenth-century New England

Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England

History

Demos, John Putnam

Americas

Oxford University Press

The author of a landmark study of Pilgrim family life called A Little Commonwealth and the Bancroft Prizewinning Entertaining Satan here presents a major contribution to the rapidly growing literature on "family history." Ranging over the entire span of American History, this book covers everything from the changing nature of fatherhood the relevance of the past for present-day policy making. Several chapters raise important questions and are sure to arouse controversy. On childhood, for example, Demos challenges the prevalent view that past eras witnessed more "abuse" than our own day. And on adolescence he reconsiders the premise that human development. His discussion of middle age points out sharp contrasts between the colonial period and the present. And his investigation of the much-neglected role of father finds greater change there than in the roles of all other family members combined. Eschewing the narrow technical focus--and language--of most scholars of the family, be they sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, of historians, the book explores the subtle interrelations between past and present, between practical and theoretical concerns. Offering fresh insight into a subject of the broadest possible human interest, this vigorous revisionist history will intrigue not only academic specialists, but also practitioners in the "helping professions" and readers of history at large. About the Author: John Demos is Professor of History at Yale University and formerly taught at Brandeis University. In addition to his research as a historian, this book draws on Demos's personal experience as a member of the Carnegie Council on Children.

Past, Present, and Personal: The Family and the Life Course in American History

Ranging over the entire span of American history, this book discusses such topics as the changing nature of fatherhood, child abuse, adolescent and middle-age life from colonial times to the present, and the relevance of the past for present-day policy making.

Parenting & Relationships

In the first edition of the Bancroft Prize-winning Entertaining Satan, John Putnam Demos presented an entirely new perspective on American witchcraft. By investigating the surviving historical documents of over a hundred actual witchcraft cases, he vividly recreated the world of New England during the witchcraft trials and brought to light fascinating information on the role of witchcraft in early American culture. Now Demos has revisited his original work and updated it to illustrate why these early Americans' strange views on witchcraft still matter to us today. He provides a new preface that puts forth a broader overview of witchcraft and looks at its place around the world--from ancient times right up to the present.

In the first edition of the Bancroft Prize-winning Entertaining Satan, John Putnam Demos presented an entirely new perspective on American witchcraft. By investigating the surviving historical documents of over a hundred actual witchcraft cases, he vividly recreated the world of New England during the witchcraft trials and brought to light fascinating information on the role of witchcraft in early American culture. Now Demos has revisited his original work and updated it to illustrate why these early Americans' strange views on witchcraft still matter to us today. He provides a new Preface that puts forth a broader overview of witchcraft and looks at its place around the world--from ancient times right up to the present.

Nominated for the National Book Award, this book is set in colonial Massachusetts where, in 1704, a French and Indian war party descended on the village of Deerfield, abducting a Puritan minister and his children. Although John Williams was eventually released, his daughter horrified the family by staying with her captors and marrying a Mohawk husband. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America

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See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Demos, John Putnam. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Demos, John Putnam

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Demos, John Putnam. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England

Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England

Past, Present, and Personal: The Family and the Life Course in American History

Past, Present, and Personal: The Family and the Life Course in American History

Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England

Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England

The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America