New Book Acquisition: Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

Ohrstrom Library has acquired a copy of Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt published by Cambridge University Press in 2009 (133.43 R72R).  One of the ten Associate Editors for this ambitious publishing project is St. Paul’s own Language Center Director, Margo Burns.  Ms. Burns also served as Project Manager for the hefty two inch thick 996 page book that was ten years in the making. The General Editor of the volume is Bernard Rosenthal.

John Murrin of Princeton University offers this review:

“Bernard Rosenthal and his exceptionally talented, international team of associate editors have produced the most comprehensive and carefully edited collection of legal documents from the Salem witch trials ever published. Unlike the three-volume collection of The Salem Witchcraft Papers, edited by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, who used the typescript prepared by the Works Progress Administration during the New Deal, the Rosenthal team has gone back to the original manuscripts and, in the process, corrected a number of serious errors of transcription. They have included more than thirty new documents either never published before or only printed in part.”

Ms. Burns has also created an in-depth website that provides links to primary resources on the web relating to the Salem Witchcraft trials as well as a link to the Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt – materials specifically covered in this book.  Together, the book and website offer an excellent comprehensive resource for anyone with interest in this fascinating period of early American History.

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