Malcolm Gaskill is a historian of early modern Britain, and this John Murray book is his standard scholarly account of Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne, the self-appointed witch hunters, and of the East Anglian witch trials of 1645 to 1647 they drove. Its strength is that Gaskill situates the trials within the specific social and political turmoil of the English Civil War, explaining why this particular and unusually intense wave of prosecutions occurred when and where it did rather than treating it as a timeless phenomenon. Its limit is geographic and chronological, so a claim about witch trials elsewhere in Europe or in a different period needs a source matched to that other context.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Published by John Murray, Malcolm Gaskill is a professional historian at the University of East Anglia, and this widely reviewed history is treated at the top tier as academic-standard documented history despite issuing through a general trade press. NotesThe standard account of Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne and of the East Anglian trials of 1645 to 1647.
Citation
AuthorMalcolm Gaskill
PublisherJohn Murray
Publication Year2005
Source TypeScholarly work
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Europe directly: "claim about witch trials elsewhere in Europe or in a different period needs a source matched to that other context."
Claims Backed By This Source (34 claims)
This source backs 34 claims across the atlas. As facts: 24 well-attested, 3 scholarly debate, 3 popular myth - corrected. As cited relationships: 1 holds. Plus 3 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Historical Figures, 12 claims: 7 well-attested, 2 scholarly debate, 2 popular myth - corrected, 1 general references.
- Esoteric Texts, 9 claims: 6 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 1 popular myth - corrected, 1 general references.
- Sources, 8 claims: 7 well-attested, 1 holds.
- Articles, 3 claims: 3 well-attested.
- Studies, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
Popular myth - corrected
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