From the Publisher
"[A] must-read."—Joanna Coles, Cosmopolitan
"Schiff's account is better written than any I have encountered....you are likely to find yourself turning the pages (as I did) with a sense that until now you'd never quite taken in what happened...[a] brilliantly assured narrative."—John Wilson, Christianity Today
"Fantastic."—Kristin Van Ogtrop, Time
"Sumptuous.... [This] sweeping history of the Salem witch trials resonates with its exploration of religion and paranoia.... Schiff nimbly connects Salem's fatal mania to subsequent witch-hunts, such as McCarthyism and the rise of Movement conservatism, revealing how close we remain to the specters and demons that stalked the Bay Colony more than three centuries ago."—Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Meticulous and disturbing.... One of Schiff's strongest contributions to this American horror story is her constant reminder that while we may never be able to definitively explain exactly why 19 people (and two dogs) were executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts (owing in part to a concerted effort to expunge any public records), we can still learn something from it."—Buzzy Jackson, Boston Globe
"A masterful account.... Schiff painstakingly reconstructs not just the events of 1692 but the world that birthed them.... Her accomplishment is all the more remarkable because there are no records of the court sessions-Schiff sifted through archival material as well as historical accounts written by witnesses years after the epidemic."—Elizabeth Hand, Los Angeles Times
"With fresh feminist insight, Schiff plumbs the mindset of late-seventeenth-century New England to explain our original 'national crackup.'"—Louisa Kamps, Elle
"Schiff delves into the minds and history of 1692 Salem as no one has before."—Laura DeMarco, Cleveland Plain Dealer
"With a bravura introduction, Schiff sets the stage, painting Salem as a backwater populated by a few hundred humorless and self-righteous souls.... Schiff's contribution is her ability to render history in vital detail, and from a contemporary perspective."—Claudia Rowe, Seattle Times
"A brilliant, exceptionally well-researched account of the 1692 Salem witch trials.... Much of what is so compelling about The Witches is how vividly Schiff brings this very different era to life.... This narrative approach works so well because Schiff just happens to be a superb and witty writer.... The Witches definitely sparkles."—Alden Mudge, BookPage
"Dazzling.... Schiff is at her best, infusing a historical event with as much life, mystery, and tragedy of any novelist."—Nicole Jones, Vanity Fair
"Compulsively readable.... Schiff expertly unknots what drove the Puritans to mass delusion. The reasons are timeless.... That the 1692 Salem witch trials were an anomaly is an illusion of the vantage point; we remain fascinated because we sense in our skin (and see in the news) that the same could be happening right now."—Nancy Rommelmann, Newsday
"Schiff brings to bear a sensibility as different from the Puritans' as can be imagined: gentle, ironic, broadly empathetic, with a keen eye for humor and nuance.... Thanks to this, and to Schiff's narrative gifts, the present-day reader flits above New England's smoky chimneys and thatched rooftops, swoops into the locked studies of magistrates and clergymen; stalks among the jealousies and rivalries of village schemers; even dwells briefly in the innermost thoughts of schoolchildren dead three centuries and more. It is wizardry of a sort-in a flash of brimstone, a whole world made wondrously visible."—Adam Goodheart, Atlantic
"[Schiff] brings her gifts to the confusions of Salem, piecing together a dramatic narrative from disparate and often tersely unrevealing sources, including diaries, memoirs, and court reports. She never lacks for an apt detail, drawing on academic studies that focus on everything from the region's sexual mores to the way sounds echoed in the atmosphere."—Ruth Franklin, Harper's
Christianity Today
Schiff’s account is better written than any I have encountered…[A] brilliantly assured narrative.”
BookPage
[Schiff’s] fascinating new book is an almost day-by-day chronology of the nine months of accusations, trials, and executions that continue to fascinate and perplex us. Offering both meticulous research and intriguing analysis.”
Booklist (starred review)
Compulsively readable…A fascinating account of one of the most infamous years in American history.”
Vogue
The Witches brings a fresh eye to the worst misogynist atrocity in American history.”
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Megan Marshall
An indelibly etched morality fable, the best recounting of the Salem hysteria in modern times.”
AudioFile
Author Schiff seeks to portray the historical figures involved in the Salem witch trials as the real people they were. Narrator Eliza Foss makes them come alive for the listener. Foss resists the urge to cackle or to sound incredulous during this objective examination of the so-called witches. While her voice suits the tone of the work, her reading is not dry. She modulates her intonations nicely, making listening easier on the ear and saving the long passages of historical and religious background from becoming tedious.”
editor of Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt Bernard Rosenthal
Stacy Schiff has beautifully combined remarkable story telling with historical accuracy and insight. She has opened up important new avenues for Salem scholarship.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert K. Massie
This brilliant, compelling book…is dramatic history and also a timeless thriller.”
Time
Fantastic.”
Entertainment Weekly
Riveting nonfiction…Schiff is a masterful researcher, and the fact that she is able to conjure this world vividly enough to induce goose bumps is impressive.”
Marie Claire
Recreates the most chill-inducing, finger-pointing months in American history.”
Pulitzer Prize–winning author David McCullough
Few writers combine as she does superb scholarship and an exceptional gift for language with amazing reach and agility of mind. This is a superb book.”
Library Journal - Audio
03/01/2016
Schiff (A Great Improvisation) offers a broader perspective on the Salem Witch Trials panic of 1692. She reminds listeners of the great hardships of the time, which included bitter weather, long gaps in communication between the villagers and the outside world, and the mistrust among neighbors. Colonial life, at its best, forced uneasy companionship in order to survive. Schiff's research is impeccable; she brings the stories of the colonists to life. Eliza Foss narrates the book with empathy. VERDICT This work is recommended for fans of American history and Schiff's earlier books. ["This fully documented narrative, if a bit exhausting and disorganized, will find a welcome audience among readers of witchcraft or colonial histories as well as Schiff's legion of fans": LJ 9/1/15 review of the Little, Brown hc.]—Pam Kingsbury, Univ. of North Alabama, Florence
Library Journal
09/01/2015
In 1692, nearly two dozen people accused of being witches were hanged in and around Salem, MA. What started as a few adolescent girls writhing and convulsing soon metastasized into dozens of "victims," hundreds accused, and communities torn apart. While witchcraft trials weren't unfamiliar to New England, clemency and uncertainty were the norm until this outbreak. Schiff (Cleopatra) traces the course of the witch hunts, detailing each player, accusation, confabulation, court appearance, and execution. The author also provides exciting digressions into the nature of continental and New World witchcraft, local political and social disputes, religious instruction, and Puritan life; though these find odd placings among the overlong courtroom reporting. Schiff's goal appears to be creating a complete accounting—it's hard to tell, though, because the work is weak in structure and organization and lacks a solid thesis. The last 50 pages are the strongest as they pose possible explanations for why the craze occurred and the various motivations of the afflicted, the inquisitors, and confessors. VERDICT This fully documented narrative, if a bit exhausting and disorganized, will find a welcome audience among readers of witchcraft or colonial histories as well as Schiff's legion of fans. [See Prepub Alert, 4/27/15.]—Evan M. Anderson, Kirkendall P.L., Ankeny, IA
OCTOBER 2015 - AudioFile
Author Schiff seeks to portray the historical figures involved in the Salem witch trials as the real people they were. Narrator Eliza Foss makes them come alive for the listener. Foss resists the urge to cackle or to sound incredulous during this objective examination of the so-called witches. While her voice suits the tone of the work, her reading is not dry. She modulates her intonations nicely, making listening easier on the ear and saving the long passages of historical and religious background from becoming tedious. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2015-08-03
The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer provides an account of a foundational American tragedy of mass hysteria and injustice. At its best, the latest work from Schiff (Cleopatra: A Life, 2010, etc.) ably weaves together all the assorted facts and many personalities from the 1692 Salem witch trials and provides genuine insight into a 17th-century culture that was barely a few steps away from the Dark Ages. Religious belief and superstition passed for reality, science had no foothold whatsoever, and both common folk and their educated ministers could believe that local women rode broomsticks, turned into cats, and had the power to be in two places at once. Furthermore, it was a world in which an accusation was as good as a conviction, where seemingly possessed girls flailed and contorted themselves in court, while judges bore down upon helpless defendants with loaded questions. The accused, under the spell of their own culture, could likewise turn on themselves—and not just to save their skin. "Confession came naturally to a people who believed it the route to salvation, who submitted spiritual biographies when they entered into church membership, who did not entirely differentiate sin from crime," writes the author. "By the craggy logic of the day, if you had been named, you must have been named for a reason. Little soul-searching was required to locate a kernel of guilt." While Schiff has marshaled the facts in neat sequential order, the book lacks either a sense of relevance or compelling narrative drive. The author writes in a sharp-eyed yet conversational tone, but she doesn't have anything new to say or at least nothing that would come as a revelation to even general readers, until the final pages. This is the type of book that yearns from the beginning for a fresh approach or a new angle. As history, The Witches is intelligent and reliable; as a story, it's a trudge over very well-trod ground.
