The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England

Carol Karlsen opens her book by observing the cultural fascination with witchcraft, which she notes is “perhaps especially pronounced in the United States” (xi). So, too, have historians become fixated on the subject of witchcraft; Karlsen notes that American historians of the late 20th century were interested in the task of reinterpreting the country’s historic witch trials and their situation in the larger national history. Karlsen joins this movement by arguing that “the story of witchcraft is primarily the story of women” (xii). She insists that few historians have properly addressed the role of gender in America’s witch trials and has thus written this book to respond to this scholarly gap.

According to Karlsen, the topic is especially important in understanding women’s history in the United States and the embedded social beliefs that make up the system that continues to oppress women to this day. Karlsen asserts that by investigating the witchcraft of 17th-century New England, she wishes to uncover the gender politics of the time and interrogate how these ideologies can enlighten our understanding of the cultural figure of the “witch.”