About the author
Elaine G. Breslaw is a historian whose work focuses on witchcraft and colonial American history, known especially for her earlier study of the Salem trials, Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem. Witches of the Atlantic World: An Historical Reader and Primary Sourcebook (New York University Press, 2000) is an anthology she edited, gathering primary documents alongside scholarly essays to give a multicultural view of witchcraft across the Atlantic world from the fifteenth through the eighteenth century. Rather than a single narrative, the book assembles court records, testimonies, and interpretive essays from multiple historians, making it a reference and teaching resource as much as a read-through history. It is aimed at students and general readers who want primary source material on early modern witchcraft trials and beliefs set beside the historical scholarship that interprets them, spanning European, colonial American, and other Atlantic-world traditions rather than a single region or period.
📖 Where to start with Elaine G Breslaw
💬 What our editors say about Elaine G Breslaw's books
“Breslaw delivers a vital corrective to the narrow lens often applied to Atlantic witchcraft studies. The collection’s strength lies in its rigorous use of primary sources to expose cultural collisions and spiritual resilience…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Witches of the Atlantic World: An Historical Reader and Primary Sourcebook
“This anthology is a significant academic contribution that successfully expands the scope of witchcraft studies beyond the usual suspects. However, it is strictly a scholarly work requiring patience and academic inclination;…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Witches of the Atlantic World: An Historical Reader and Primary Sourcebook
