The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic ( Oxford Illustrated History )

"As such, the most important contribution made by The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft is that it engages in contemporary conversations promoted through every chapter that witchcraft and magic are primarily formatted through mediatic normativity. Consequently, illustrations are used as references to the imaginaries embedded in the sometimes-overlapping social climates and cultural differences. In fact, these illustrations complete an already greatly refined and up-to-date history of witches and sorcerers one that pertains to every discipline in the humanities and social sciences concerned with issues of power and alterity."--Reading Religion

Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire. He has written extensively on the history of magic, witchcraft, ghosts, and popular medicine, including The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts (2007), Grimoires: A History of Magic Books (2009), Paganism: A Very Short Introduction (2011), Magic: A Very Short Introduction (2012), and most recently America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft after Salem (2013).