Sources

Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/witches-and-witch-hunts-a-global-history.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/witches-and-witch-hunts-a-global-history

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-witches-and-witch-hunts-a-global-history,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/sources/witches-and-witch-hunts-a-global-history},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Wolfgang Behringer is a historian of early modern Europe, and this academic book, published by Polity Press, is a global history of witch persecution, situating the European witch hunts within a broader comparative and world historical frame rather than treating them as an isolated Western phenomenon. Its strength is genuinely comparative scope, drawing on Behringer's own archival research into the European trials while placing them alongside witchcraft belief and persecution in other parts of the world. Its limit is that, given its global and long historical span, individual regional witch hunts receive less depth than a dedicated regional study would provide, so a specific local trial or region is best checked against a more focused source.

Facts

Citation

Author

Wolfgang Behringer

Publisher

Polity Press

Publication Year

2004

URL

https://archive.org/details/witcheswitchhunt0000behr

Source Type

academic monograph

Assessment

Reliability Tier

Wolfgang Behringer's comparative scholarly survey of witch persecution worldwide, setting out the modern estimate of European executions and tracing the origin of the inflated nine million figure.

Notes

Comparative survey of witch persecution worldwide. Sets out the modern estimate of European executions and traces the origin of the inflated nine million figure.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Europe

This source names Europe directly: "is a historian of early modern Europe, and this academic book, published by Polity Press, is a global history of witch persecution, situating the European witch hunts within a broader comparative..."

Source Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global HistoryWolfgang Behringer

Global

This source names Global directly: "book, published by Polity Press, is a global history of witch persecution, situating the European witch hunts within a broader comparative and world historical frame rather than treating them as an..."

Source Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global HistoryWolfgang Behringer

Questions Resolved By This

How many people died in the European witch trials, and can the figure ever be narrowed further?

Behringer/Levack/Goodare/Hutton regional archival synthesis, and the debunking of the Voigt nine-million figure, both already recorded on the page this question concerns.

Claims Backed By This Source (93 claims)

This source backs 93 claims across the atlas. As facts: 65 well-attested, 6 scholarly debate, 1 popular myth - corrected, 1 open question. As cited relationships: 9 holds, 2 connected. Plus 9 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

Religious Events, 30 claims: 20 well-attested, 2 scholarly debate, 5 holds, 3 general references.
Open Questions, 19 claims: 15 well-attested, 2 connected, 2 general references.
Historical Figures, 12 claims: 7 well-attested, 2 scholarly debate, 1 holds, 2 general references.
Sources, 10 claims: 8 well-attested, 2 holds.
Articles, 9 claims: 9 well-attested.
Esoteric Texts, 7 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 1 general references.
Studies, 5 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 1 popular myth - corrected, 1 open question, 1 general references.
Religions, 1 claims: 1 holds.