"The Specter of Salem offers an insightful examination of the
tangled afterlife of the Salem witchcraft trials. With a deft touch,
Gretchen Adams illuminates the role of history in popular memory
as she examines the shifting culture wars waged over Salem's legacy.
She reveals the intriguing process by which a complex episode becomes
a cautionary tale with a powerful and enduring resonance."
- Alan Taylor, University of California, Davis
"Drawing on her impressive research, Gretchen Adams tells a
compelling story that features nuanced readings of the powerful and
enduring symbolic life of the Salem witch trials. The
Specter of Salem is a welcome addition to the growing literature on what might
be called the biographies of American symbols."
- Edward T. Linenthal, Indiana University
"In The Specter of Salem Gretchen Adams offers an exciting,
informative look at the evolution of America's response to the Salem
witch trials and the ways in which the events of 1692 provided a
template for the shaping and reshaping of cultural narrations about
matters as diverse as the debates over slavery, Mormonism, Catholicism,
and the very meaning of America. This book offers an important contribution
to American cultural history."
- Bernard Rosenthal, Binghamton University
"This is an important book, this is a significant book, but
most important, it is a thoroughly engaging and interesting book.
Gretchen Adams has taken one of the most enduring set-pieces of American
history - the Salem witchcraft outbreak - and shown the many ways
Americans have interpreted it since 1692. All of us historians can
rattle off the facts about Salem, and perhaps say one or two words
about Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller; many in the general
public can conjure up an image of witches and witchhunts; and Salem
itself has now embraced witchery as part of its civic identity. Gretchen
Adams brings all of this together, showing how the episode at Salem
has been a cultural reference point for Americans in different ways
as we have reinterpreted our history and mythology. This is a sophisticated
book coming in the guise of a well-written popular history. It should
be a mainstay of college classes in history and historical interpretation.
Well-researched, well-written, and from page to page exciting and
compelling."
- Robert J. Allison, Suffolk University
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