Marion Gibson, "Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials" (Scribner, 2023)

Marion Gibson, "Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials" (Scribner, 2023)

Author: New Books Network December 30, 2025 Duration: 49:26
Witchfinder General, Salem, Malleus Maleficarum. The world of witch-hunts and witch trials sounds archaic and fanciful, these terms relics of an unenlightened, brutal age. However, we often hear ‘witch-hunt’ in today’s media, and the misogyny that shaped witch trials is all too familiar. Three women were prosecuted under a version of the 1735 Witchcraft Act as recently as 2018. In Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials (Simon & Schuster, 2023), Professor Marion Gibson uses thirteen significant trials to tell the global history of witchcraft and witch-hunts. As well as exploring the origins of witch-hunts through some of the most famous trials from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, it takes us in new and surprising directions. It shows us how witchcraft was reimagined by lawyers and radical historians in France, how suspicions of sorcery led to murder in Jazz Age Pennsylvania, the effects of colonialism and Christian missionary zeal on ‘witches’ in Africa, and how even today a witch trial can come in many guises. Professor Gibson also tells the stories of the ‘witches’ – mostly women like Helena Scheuberin, Anny Sampson and Joan Wright, whose stories have too often been overshadowed by those of the powerful men, such as King James I and ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins, who hounded them. Once a tool invented by demonologists to hurt and silence their enemies, witch trials have been twisted and transformed over the course of history and the lines between witch and witch-hunter blurred. For the fortunate, a witch-hunt is just a metaphor, but, as this book makes clear, witches are truly still on trial. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose doctoral work focused on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dive into the distant past with New Books in Medieval History, where the latest academic research comes to life through conversation. This podcast, part of the wider New Books Network, functions as an ongoing public lecture series, bringing the authors of groundbreaking monographs directly to your ears. Each episode features an in-depth dialogue between the scholar behind a new book and an informed interviewer, peeling back the layers on topics ranging from daily life and religious practice to warfare, politics, and art across the medieval world. You’ll hear about the process of historical discovery, the debates shaping the field, and the fascinating stories that often lie outside textbook summaries. It’s a chance to sit in on the kind of thoughtful discussion that usually happens in university corridors or after conference panels. By focusing entirely on recently published work, this channel offers a dynamic window into how our understanding of the centuries between antiquity and the Renaissance is continually being refined and challenged. For anyone with a curiosity about the foundations of the modern world, this podcast provides a direct line to the experts who are writing its deepest history. Tune in to explore the complex tapestry of the Middle Ages, one new book at a time.
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New Books in Medieval History
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