Here, Laurie Wells Carlson offers a fresh explanation of witchcraft's link to organic illness. She focuses on the afflicted of Salem, rather than on the accused, and offers an argument that the victims suffered from an outbreak of encephalitis.
In the late winter and early spring of 1692, residents of Salem Village, Massachusetts, began to suffer from strange physical and mental maladies. The randomness of the victims, and unusual symptoms that were seldom duplicated, led residents to suspect an otherworldly menace. Their suspicions and fears eventually prompted the infamous Salem Witch Trials. While most historians have concentrated their efforts on the accused, Laurie Winn Carlson, A Fever in Salem focuses on the afflicted. What were the characteristics of a typical victim? Why did the symptoms occur when and where they did? What natural explanation could be given for symptoms that included hallucinations, convulsions, and psychosis, often resulting in death? Ms. Carlson offers an innovative, well-grounded explanation of witchcraft’s link to organic illness. Systematically comparing the symptoms recorded in colonial diaries and court records to those of the encephalitis epidemic in the early twentieth century, she argues convincingly that the victims suffered from the same disease, and she offers persuasive evidence for organic explanations of other witchcraft victims throughout New England as well as in Europe. A Fever in Salem is a provocative reinterpretation of one of America’s strangest moments, and a refreshing departure from widely accepted Freudian explanations of witchcraft persecution.
“What an intriguing hypothesis!”
Carlson turns to tackle a phenomenon that has engrossed and frightened generations. -- Barbara Lloyd McMichael The Seattle Times
A fascinating, refreshing reassessment of one of the most bizarre episodes in American history. The A-List
-- Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer; author of I Heard the Sirens Scream
This book will send historians and epidemiologists scurrying back to the drawing board. -- Katrina L. Kelner, Editor, Science Magazine
Ms. Carlson writes well, at times, even humorously. -- Phoebe-Lou Adams Atlantic Monthly
Meticulously researched...marshals her arguments with clarity and persuasive force. -- John Banville The New Yorker
Provocative, informative, and dramatic...packed with epidemiological evidence and studded with convincing figures and maps. -- Nan Sumner-Mack Providence Journal
A medical mystery that will intrigue both the epidemiologist-historian detectives and the lay reader. -- Robert S. Desowitz, Professor of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina and author of Who Gave Pinta to the Santa Maria?
Laurie Winn Carlson has written frequently on the history of the West, including Cattle: An Informal Social History; Seduced by the West; Sidesaddles to Heaven; and Boss of the Plains. She lives in Cheney, Washington.
Laurie Winn Carlson offers an innovative, well-grounded explanation of witchcraft's link to organic illness.
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