HI 262

This course explores the phenomenon of witch-hunts in early modern Europe. While easy to dismiss as a historical aberration, ideas of demons and witchcraft were expressions of the specific political, religious, and social history of the time. Themes will include popular belief in witchcraft and magic, the role of the devil in society, changes in religious belief associated with the Reformation, crime and punishment, the household and the family, gender and sexuality, animals and the natural world, poverty and social disorder. {P}