Jude Seal's Notebook

While perusing the magazine racks in my local branch of WHSmith’s, my eyes fell on one title and I let out an inward groan of academic despair. I have to admit I have something of a love hate relationship with popular history magazines. Some are reasonably good, others are terrible. Some are only interesting for the farcical nature of the ‘history’ contained within. The title which drew my attention however, was one which might be considered both ridiculous and at the same time both irresponsible and dangerous. The title, produced by the same imprint which publishes All About History (a title which itself frequently retreads inaccuracies from simplified school history texts), was “History of Witchcraft”. The subtitle makes the bold statement that it “Uncovers the truth behind the trials that tore Europe apart”. As anyone with even a casual scholarly interest in witchcraft or magic is no doubt aware this is a distinctly bold and factually inaccurate claim. Even with this beginning sta...