While reading this Saturday's Chicago Tribune I noticed a big picture that said Witch Hunt, intrigued I began to read the article. It was a book review about an author we have read in class, John Demos. Demos has written a new book "The Enemy Within: 2,000 years of Witch-Hunting in the Western World", which also relates to our Perilous Times unit. Demos contradicts the beliefs that science has eliminated the belief in witch craft by mentioning that day-care child abuse and sex-ring scares that occurred in the 1980's and 1990's. In Bakersfield California, four people were convicted of Satanism based on the claims of ritual killing of infants and animals. Also in California, there was the McMartin preschool case in which children were intensely questioned, resulting in tales of sex acts and Satanic rituals. This questioning led to 63 spin-off investigations, which resulted in no convictions. Demos believes that similar cases developed in Minnesota, Texas, New York, Tennessee, and Massachusetts (also home to the original Salem Witch Trials). Demos states that "Witch-hunting was, and is, a cross-cultural, transhistorical phenomenon". He also says, " always and everywhere, charges of witchcraft were grounded in a web local, immensely personal relations." The article also mentions "The Crucible" as another artifact that connects with-hunting to a modern day event.
I believe that excerpts from Demos' book could be really beneficial to the Perilous Times unit. With the exception of the Red Scare, we didn't really examine any more recent "Witch-hunts". It could be an interesting addition to the Perilous Times artifacts.
If you are interested in reading the article here is the link: "The Enemy Within: 2,000 Years of Witch-hunting in the Western World" by John Demos -- chicagotribune.com
(picture from www.amazon.com)
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