““However, it happened that one summer ten distinguished members of my faculty convened (five at a time) and unanimously declared me guilty of ‘deviousness…
“No matter how bleak and constrained the situation,” she said, “some forms of improvisation and coping take place. No matter what happens, people go on telling stories about it and bequeath them to the future.” She added, “The past reminds us that change can occur.”
As “Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials” argues, across seven centuries, women have been accused of witchcraft but what that means often differs wildly, revealing the anxieties of each particular society, Rivka Galchen writes.
‘The Prosecution of Professor Chandler Davis’ provides the historical insight that I associate with the best accounts of this kind: motives are complex…