Library:The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe
| The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe | |
|---|---|
| Author | Brian P. Levack |
| First published | 1987 |
| ISBN | — |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | History Religion & Belief |
| Tactics | Propaganda Technique Fabrication |
The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe is a 1987 book by Brian P. Levack.
Summary
Historian Brian Levack offers a standard overview of the European witch-hunts of the 15th to 18th centuries, during which tens of thousands of people, most of them women, were executed for witchcraft.
The book has been revised several times and is widely used in universities.
Key points
- Ideas. Levack explains how theologians and lawyers built a theory of witches as members of a satanic conspiracy.
- Legal change. The use of torture in some legal systems produced confessions that confirmed the theory and named more suspects.
- Decline. Prosecutions fell as courts demanded better evidence and elite belief in witchcraft weakened.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
The witch-hunts are the historical model for later moral panics, showing how a conspiracy theory combined with coercive questioning can produce its own "evidence."