A History of Magic and Witchcraft: Sabbats, Satan and Superstitions in the West by Frances Timbers is the type of history book that appeals to both history buffs and those who realize the need to know history in order to impact the future.

There are plenty of histories of magic and witchcraft that simply provide a timeline of events with accepted explanations for those events. Some of them are quite good for what they are. Timbers combines such a history with what the work of history should do, make connections and posit explanations that make as much if not more sense than the accepted ones. Because so much of what we think we know about the subject is actually from propaganda from the time or popular culture from the more recent past, this book has to help us unlearn what we "knew" so we can then learn what is more accurate.

The focus of this book is on the period from the early middle ages to the early modern era. Timbers looks at the history from both on high (those making judgments) and from the working/peasant classes who use and in fact need much of what passed for magic. The prosecutions are reviewed from a legal perspective as well as a cultural one. And gender is examined with respect to both who practiced and who was prosecuted.

Whatever you know and whatever you think you know, this book will add to your understanding of what magic and witchcraft really were, what prosecutions and persecutions really reflected, and how such actions, regardless of the target, serve those in power. Highly recommended for both those interested in the topic itself as well as those who simply want to gain a fuller understanding of witch hunts, both historical and current. And also what isn't, in common usage, a witch hunt but is called such by guilty parties to shift the focus of public opinion.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )