A thorough look at the Salem witch crisis from many viewpoints. I, like, I assume the majority of people who have heard about this period in New England's history had no idea why these things happened, though I always wanted to dig deeper and have some of it explained. Stacy Schiff did that in this very extensive study of the whys and the wherefores of this despicable miscarriage of justice. Though she was "all over the place" in her approach, I managed to glean enough of the different theories to have these things make more sense to me. I did find it disconcerting to read that the various accused rode on poles to their destinations, as if they really did. In other words, the interweaving of the fantastic with the real made things more muddled. I did not change my feeling about this part of history, that it was tragic and totally unnecessary.