The Witches: Salem, 1692

"In the haunting opening of The Witches, popular historian Stacy Schiff announces her intention to summon up, rather than solve, the mystery of the witch hunts that racked Salem in 1692. She says: “Salem represents one of the rare moments in our enlightened past when the candles are knocked out and everyone seems to be groping about in the dark, the place where all good stories begin.” Indeed they do. The Witches surveys the ministers and the odd women easily targeted as witches; the intransient judges; and the teenage girls who found their voice in claiming to be bewitched. Schiff makes the dark an inviting place to linger."

"I'm listening to Stacy Schiff's fascinating "The Witches: Salem, 1692," and last week I got to a part where she discussed how European witches were thought to ride hyenas to parties in the forest."