I recently became interested in Salem Witch trials and related subjects, and Starkey's "The Devil in Massachusetts" was recommended to me as a starting point. And, it was an interesting read. It is the first book to which I would read about the witch trials in 1692 Salem.

I also find it interesting to learn about the reactions from the locals and authorities to hysteria or paranoia regarding "witches" in Salem and relating tales. It involved a look at the social background from both accused and the accusers during this time period. It almost reminds me of reading about the mass hysteria of Chinese society of 1768 in Philip Kuhn's Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768.

This book was first published in 1949, and it is roughly 300 pages with twenty-two chapters. The writing style almost read as a historical scholarly article as it is almost wordy. However, the information lies within interests me to inquire further on the subject to which the "selected bibliography" was helpful for starting a research.

In my opinion, it is very informative reading, and it is certainly shows one example of a mass hysteria that can happen in any town or society.

If I remember correctly, Starkey's book started off as a doctoral thesis. It reads like one, despite her attempt to inject drama into a period of history that needs no such injection. Her modern enquiry is rather dated now, as she used the technique of Freudian analysis to explain away the hysteria surrounding the trials and to explain how something like this could have happened. The psychoanalysis may hit on a grain of truth, but a lot of what she stated was merely conjecture. I would have been more interested to know about the link between the real dangers the Puritans faced (dangers over which they had very little control in their new, hostile, strange environment) and their belief system, which left them ripe to believe in imagined ones.

This book would be a good basis for a TV movie on the Lifetime channel. It may be based on solid primary sources, but it is written like a non-fiction novel full of conjecture and theory using the basic facts as a foundation. In other words, it is not good reference material; a good book to give an overall story line, but that would be it, hence the three star rating.

Starkey raised my eyebrow with his Preface comment, "Only twenty witches were excecuted," as he compared what happened in Puritan New England to the rest of the world. When speaking of Dorcas Goode, the five year old sent to prison for eight months, he almost implies that she deserved her fate. While this may be his methodology for being frank and blunt about a serious subject, perhaps wanting to stir the emotions of the reader, I found it a bit callous, if not dismissive--which might have been his goal.

From a scholar point of view, he provides no background, and simply starts at the beginning of the hysteria with the "illnesses" that afflicted Betty Parris and Abigail Williams. He ignored Ann Putnam, the older of the "original three afflicted" who kept the hysteria going, especially with her dramatics at each of the examinations.

Again, I give it three stars just because it provides a shallow start for further investigation and relatively easy read. Sort of a "if you read one book on the Salem Witch Trials, you've read them all" category.

Caveats out of the way first: yes, there are some factual inaccuracies in this riveting account of the Salem witchcraft hysteria. Fifty additional years of research will inevitably alter the record. And yes, by virtue of the same fifty years of additional work, certain of Marion Starkey's interpretations (by no means all) are now generally considered to be superseded.



All that admitted, what a gem this book is! I read it as a teenager and it demonstrated the possibilities of historical narrative for me as no other book had. The facts of the story are gripping in themselves, of course, and when presented with Starkey's novelistic and dramatic flair, the result is informative, thought-provoking, and exceptionally moving. Starkey wrote this book in the shadow of McCarthyism, the "witch hunt" of the 1950s, and that lends especial power to her majestic conclusion.



Starkey was a most considerable writer (so reading some of the criticisms of her prose here at Amazon is confounding -- we must not be teaching our young people to read complex sentences very well!). Any budding historian or novelist would do well to study her work here most carefully -- for example, the sheer brilliancy of her chapter endings. The Devil in Massachusetts achieves literary status and should be part of any American reader's basic education.

Caveats out of the way first: yes, there are some factual inaccuracies in this riveting account of the Salem witchcraft hysteria. Fifty additional years of research will inevitably alter the record. And yes, by virtue of the same fifty years of additional work, certain of Marion Starkey's interpretations (by no means all) are now generally considered to be superseded.

All that admitted, what a gem this book is! I read it as a teenager and it demonstrated the possibilities of historical narrative for me as no other book had. The facts of the story are gripping in themselves, of course, and when presented with Starkey's novelistic and dramatic flair, the result is informative, thought-provoking, and exceptionally moving. Starkey wrote this book in the shadow of McCarthyism, the "witch hunt" of the 1950s, and that lends especial power to her majestic conclusion.

Starkey was a most considerable writer (so reading some of the criticisms of her prose here at Amazon is confounding -- we must not be teaching our young people to read complex sentences very well!). Any budding historian or novelist would do well to study her work here most carefully -- for example, the sheer brilliancy of her chapter endings. The Devil in Massachusetts achieves literary status and should be part of any American reader's basic education.

Caveats out of the way first: yes, there are some factual inaccuracies in this riveting account of the Salem witchcraft hysteria. Fifty additional years of research will inevitably alter the record. And yes, by virtue of the same fifty years of additional work, certain of Marion Starkey's interpretations (by no means all) are now generally considered to be superseded.

All that admitted, what a gem this book is! I read it as a teenager and it demonstrated the possibilities of historical narrative for me as no other book had. The facts of the story are gripping in themselves, of course, and when presented with Starkey's novelistic and dramatic flair, the result is informative, thought-provoking, and exceptionally moving. Starkey wrote this book in the shadow of McCarthyism, the "witch hunt" of the 1950s, and that lends especial power to her majestic conclusion.

Starkey was a most considerable writer (so reading some of the criticisms of her prose here at Amazon is confounding -- we must not be teaching our young people to read complex sentences very well!). Any budding historian or novelist would do well to study her work here most carefully -- for example, the sheer brilliancy of her chapter endings. The Devil in Massachusetts achieves literary status and should be part of any American reader's basic education.

It's a clich�, but I literally could not put this book down once I started it. It's beautifully written, the bare-bones facts fleshed out with details of the appearance and atmosphere of 17th-century Salem. The inexorable and horrifying progress of the witch hunt, which, once begun, became an unstoppable machine, fed by gossip, self-interest, and religious repression, is recounted in day-by-day detail, focusing on the characters of those involved on all sides. It sometimes shows its age--it was originally published in 1950--but very few books today show such mastery of style in historical writing. It was an influential book in its time, serving as source material for Arthur Miller in his play "The Crucible," which he wrote as a cautionary parable about the figurative witchhunting of the McCarthy era. It's a tale of a time and place when persons could be imprisoned without benefit of counsel for indefinite periods, when a word of protest could bring accusations of treason, when powerful, well-connected people could influence the course of justice, when the forces of religious and political intolerance walked abroad in the land. Does this sound familiar?

It's a cliché, but I literally could not put this book down once I started it. It's beautifully written, the bare-bones facts fleshed out with details of the appearance and atmosphere of 17th-century Salem. The inexorable and horrifying progress of the witch hunt, which, once begun, became an unstoppable machine, fed by gossip, self-interest, and religious repression, is recounted in day-by-day detail, focusing on the characters of those involved on all sides. It sometimes shows its age--it was originally published in 1950--but very few books today show such mastery of style in historical writing. It was an influential book in its time, serving as source material for Arthur Miller in his play "The Crucible," which he wrote as a cautionary parable about the figurative witchhunting of the McCarthy era. It's a tale of a time and place when persons could be imprisoned without benefit of counsel for indefinite periods, when a word of protest could bring accusations of treason, when powerful, well-connected people could influence the course of justice, when the forces of religious and political intolerance walked abroad in the land. Does this sound familiar?

I find the Salem witch trials to be very interesting and I love learning about them. After reading this book however, I am starting to become turned off by them. I am a woman and personally find woman writers to usually be enjoyable. This woman should go back to college or maybe even grade school and find out how to write. She uses complicated sentences that make no sense (you'll need a dictionary or another person to help you out with the meanings of some of her 20-word sentences). Do yourself a favor, pick a different book.

I find the Salem witch trials to be very interesting and I love learning about them. After reading this book however, I am starting to become turned off by them. I am a woman and personally find woman writers to usually be enjoyable. This woman should go back to college or maybe even grade school and find out how to write. She uses complicated sentences that make no sense (you'll need a dictionary or another person to help you out with the meanings of some of her 20-word sentences). Do yourself a favor, pick a different book.

I found Marion Starkey's presentation of the Salem Witch Trials very mind opening and thought provoking. She gives footnote and reference after reference proving that she was not just spouting this information off the top of her head, she gave a well researched and developed presentation of the materials she researched and I found that that is more than you can say about other books that have been written. She has gathered much evidence to support her positions on the Salem Witch Trials, that is someone who cares about her work. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to think for themselves and think outside the box.

I found Marion Starkey's presentation of the Salem Witch Trials very mind opening and thought provoking. She gives footnote and reference after reference proving that she was not just spouting this information off the top of her head, she gave a well researched and developed presentation of the materials she researched and I found that that is more than you can say about other books that have been written. She has gathered much evidence to support her positions on the Salem Witch Trials, that is someone who cares about her work. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to think for themselves and think outside the box.

The Devil in Massachusetts is based on the Salem Witch Trials, one of the most interesting things in U.S. History, the author just made it very boring and from her own understanding of the Witch Trials. This book is designed to be read for college level students. First of all, the different chapters in the book were very confusing, a different character a chapter then bringing back up the same character after many chapters. Although she does provide enough information leading to the trials and what happened afterwards, however it was plain and very hard to follow. For example, who was John Indian? She keeps mentioning him on and off, which got me confused of whom and what he stands for in the book. Overall, Starkey's view of the witch craft hysteria was confusing and very boring; though it had a lot of information, it was inaccurate. I'd recommend this book to college level students and to people who have an interest in the witch trials, not of what really happened and what really went on in Salem Town in 1692.

First of all, Starkey is not a historian she is a journalist who were interested writing about the witchcraft. The book was more like a novel (with lots of drama) than arguments or explain why did the Salem Witchcraft evoked during the year of 1692. She focused on the trials and what the characters did, but she did not explain or argued why certain characters, such as Ann Putnam, did what she did during the outbreak of witchcraft. If you are interested reading about the Salem witchcraft, instead of trying to understand what really happened, this would be a good book for you. Besides that, I don't recommened anyone reading it unless you like drama, because at the end of her book she complicated the story with her opinions and random facts.

I really enjoyed Starkey's version of the trials. One complaint I have seen is the inaccuracy of this book, however, I have seen many inaccuracies in many things. Truth beknown, a lot of "theory" is out there, from a time that there are scads of missing records from. Look at how many theories abound on the reason behind the hysteria itself. I very much enjoyed this book, and reccomend adding this to your Salem library.

An engrossing narrative account of the Salem Witch Trials. An example of mass hysteria that that has parallels to be found in most of human history. I am not a scholar of this event so I will take the word of the critics regarding some historical inaccuracies although they seem relatively trivial. I like the writing style, though obviously not everyone does.

I normally don't like books like this, especially books that pass themselves of as scholarly. However, I've always been interested in the Salem Witch Trials, and Starkey's "Devil in Massachusetts" is definitely not to be overlooked.

This may not be the best, or the most thorough account of the trials, but if you're looking for the basics, as well as a little background info, "Devil" provides a very intriguing and interesting read. At times, Starkey's wording and verbosity seem a little exhaustive and can be overlooked. But for the brunt of it, Starkey provides enough information to justly conclude what did happen in Salem, what caused it, and the events that followed.

Be scholarly, verbose reads your cup of tea or not, if you're looking for some great, solid information on the bleakest event of undemocratic justice ever to stain American history, Marion Starkey's "Devil in Mass." will definitely shed some reason and light on the "bubble, bubble, toil and trouble" of the Salem Witch Trials.

In reading this book, I thought that I would learn about the psychological aspects of the Salem Witch Trials in depth. Although it was interesting and there is something to learn here, I didn't get the feeling that I was getting an exhaustive study.

I did learn a bit more of the social background of the accusers and some of the accused which I found to be very helpful to understanding this dark time in our history.

Using her knowledge of psychology and psychoanalogy, Starkey gives us an interesting look at the 1692-93 Salem witch trials. Rather than using a boring textbook format, Marion turns the entire event into a story. A story that, while sometimes questionable, is undoubtedly entertaining.

"The Devil in Massachussets" is both a fair resource and a good novel. Put simply, it's worth buying.