The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories

This book is the first major study of England's biggest and best-known witch trial; which took place in 1612, when ten witches were arraigned and hung in the village of Pendle in Lancashire. In this volume, 11 experts from a variety of fields offer new surveys of these events and their meanings for contemporaries, for later generations, and for the present day. Essays look at the politics and ideology of witch-hunting, the conduct of the trial, the social and economic contexts, the religious background, and the local and family details of the episode. This is the most comprehensive study of any English witch trial.