Witchcraft by Marion Gibson
Witchcraft
Subtitle: A History in Thirteen Trials
Author: Marion Gibson
Genre: Nonfiction, History
Publish Date: January 2024
Read: July 2026
Favorite Quote:
Synopsis: A global history of thirteen witch trials (spooky!), one through-line. Gibson tracks witch hunts across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, mixing the famous (Salem) with the overlooked: a Sami woman accused of murder in 1620s Norway, France's last witch trial in 1731, a British colonial execution in Lesotho in 1948. The argument she builds across all of them is that witch accusations have always been a tool of power, aimed squarely at whoever a society most wants to silence.
Why does this book beguile? I picked this up expecting narrative nonfiction and got a history lecture instead (a well-researched, thoughtful one, but still). The cases Gibson chose are interesting, and her argument that witch-hunting never stopped, but rather changed shape, is the kind of idea you keep pondering. I never connected to the people in these stories, which is a lot to ask a reader to push through across thirteen trials. If you want to understand witchcraft persecution as a historical and social force, this delivers. If you need to feel something while you read, this probably isn't your book.
