Witches
The History of a Persecution
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Narrated by:
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Gabrielle Glaister
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By:
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Nigel Cawthorne
About this listen
When bigotry and power mania take control, disaster always follows for subjugated persons - even when the power is wielded by the Church.
Witchcraft was viewed as devil-worship. Between 1450 and 1750, 100,000 people were accused, subject to the most bestial tortures and usually executed. Witches examines the wildfire-spread of witch-hunting across Europe and America, revealing the disturbing and brutal realities of these witch hunts and their roots in misogyny and religious persecution.
It includes:
- Letters and trial testimonies from those charged with witchcraft, as well as some from self-proclaimed witches
- Biographic detail of key witch hunters, such as Matthew Hopkins (the so-called "Witchfinder General"), who was responsible for hundreds of executions
- Accounts of famous witch trials, from Chelmsford to Salam
Nigel Cawthorne doesn’t shy away from the violent details of this persecution, exploring the events as they transpired, the contexts that triggered them, and tracing it back to its source.
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When you think of serial killers throughout history, the names that come to mind are ones like Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy. But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, Kate Bender? The narrative we’re comfortable with is the one where women are the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. In fact, serial killers are thought to be so universally, overwhelmingly male that in 1998, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood infamously declared in a homicide conference, “There are no female serial killers.”
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An ode to arsenic
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 03-04-24
By: Tori Telfer
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The Devils of Loudun
- A True Story of Demonic Possession
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In 1632, an entire convent in the small French village of Loudun was apparently possessed by the devil. After a sensational and celebrated trial, the convent's charismatic priest Urban Grandier - accused of spiritually and sexually seducing the nuns in his charge - was convicted of being in league with Satan. Then he was burned at the stake for witchcraft. A remarkable true story of religious and sexual obsession, The Devils of Loudun is considered by many to be Brave New World author Aldous Huxley's nonfiction masterpiece.
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Strange book strange tale
- By Grant on 09-08-20
By: Aldous Huxley
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History's Most Powerful Witches and Wizards
- 2 Books in 1
- By: Desmond Wilde
- Narrated by: Charles D. Baker
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Witches have always worried, scared, and fascinated people in equal measure. From dark magic to home remedies, they have been part of the cultural landscape for people across the world. From Europe to the Americas, Asia to Africa, the idea of women who delve deep into magic has created some of the most enduring stories in the history of humanity. Often, these stories blend the real with the unreal, truth with fiction, and magick with the mundane.
By: Desmond Wilde
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America Bewitched
- The Story of Witchcraft After Salem
- By: Owen Davies
- Narrated by: J. Paul Guimont
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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America Bewitched is the first major history of witchcraft in America - from the Salem witch trials of 1692 to the present day. The infamous Salem trials are etched into the consciousness of modern America, the human toll a reminder of the dangers of intolerance and persecution. The refrain 'Remember Salem!' was invoked frequently over the ensuing centuries. As time passed, the trials became a milepost measuring the distance America had progressed from its colonial past, its victims now the righteous and their persecutors the shamed.
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excellent book
- By BraveSparrow on 07-30-16
By: Owen Davies
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Joan of Arc
- A Life Transfigured
- By: Kathryn Harrison
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The profoundly inspiring and fully documented saga of Joan of Arc, the young peasant girl whose "voices" moved her to rally the French nation and a reluctant king against British invaders in 1428, has fascinated artistic figures as diverse as William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Voltaire, George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, Carl Dreyer, and Robert Bresson. Was she a divinely inspired saint? A schizophrenic? A demonically possessed heretic, as her persecutors and captors tried to prove?
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Where Biography and Legend Collide
- By Troy on 12-23-14
By: Kathryn Harrison
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The Fall of Anne Boleyn
- A Countdown
- By: Claire Ridgway
- Narrated by: Claire Ridgway
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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During the spring of 1536 in Tudor England, events conspire to bring down Anne Boleyn, the Queen of England. The coup against the Queen results in the brutal executions of six innocent people - Anne Boleyn herself, her brother, and four courtiers - and the rise of a new Queen. Drawing on 16th-century letters, eye witness accounts, and chronicles, Claire Ridgway leads the listener through the sequence of chilling events one day at a time, telling the true story of Anne Boleyn's fall.
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Fascinating, well researched, and great narration.
- By Katherine K. Carlisle on 01-19-16
By: Claire Ridgway
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New York Burning
- Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan
- By: Jill Lepore
- Narrated by: Beth McDonald
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Abridged
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Over a few weeks in 1741, 10 fires blazed across Manhattan. With each new fire, panicked whites saw more evidence of a slave uprising. Tried and convicted before the colony's Supreme Court, 13 black men were burned at the stake and 17 were hanged. Four whites, the alleged ringleaders of the plot, were also hanged, and seven more were pardoned on condition that they never set foot in New York again.
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Interesting
- By Phillip Goodson on 05-15-09
By: Jill Lepore
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City of Light, City of Poison
- Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris
- By: Holly Tucker
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Appointed to conquer the "crime capital of the world", the first police chief of Paris faces an epidemic of murder in the late 1600s. Assigned by Louis XIV, Nicolas de La Reynie begins by clearing the streets of filth and installing lanterns throughout Paris, turning it into the City of Light. The fearless La Reynie pursues criminals through the labyrinthine neighborhoods of the city. He unearths a tightly knit cabal of poisoners, witches, and renegade priests.
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Great historic non-fiction
- By Josette Luvmour on 07-01-17
By: Holly Tucker
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The Salem Witch Hunt
- A Captivating Guide to the Hunt and Trials of People Accused of Witchcraft in Colonial Massachusetts
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Edwin Andrews
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Decades after witch-hunting had begun to die down in Europe, North America was about to witness its bloodiest witch hunt in history. The Massachusetts of 1692 was a very different one to the state we know today. Populated by colonists, many of them a generation or less from life in an England bathed in religious turmoil, Massachusetts was not the safe haven that the fleeing Puritans had hoped it would be. Persecuted for their faith in Europe, the Puritans had pictured a kind of utopia founded on biblical principles.
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I love the the book but......
- By Regan Gibson on 11-21-20
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American Crucifixion
- The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church
- By: Alex Beam
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the jail in the dusty frontier town of Carthage, Illinois. Clamorous and angry, they were hunting down a man they saw as a grave threat to their otherwise quiet lives: The founding prophet of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. They wanted blood. At thirty-nine years old, Smith had already lived an outsized life. In addition to starting the Church of Latter-Day Saints and creating his own "Golden Bible" - the Book of Mormon - he had worked as a water-dowser and treasure hunter.
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All religious histories are not created equal
- By Kendra on 07-01-14
By: Alex Beam
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The Black Death
- A Personal History
- By: John Hatcher
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Centlivre
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fresh approach to the history of the Black Death, John Hatcher, a world-renowned scholar of the Middle Ages, recreates everyday life in a mid-14th-century rural English village. By focusing on the experiences of ordinary villagers as they lived - and died - during the Black Death (A.D. 1345-50), Hatcher vividly places the reader directly into those tumultuous years and describes in fascinating detail the day-to-day existence of people struggling with the tragic effects of the plague.
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Too Dry for a "Fiction"
- By Caroline on 01-16-10
By: John Hatcher
What listeners say about Witches
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- TrevorTrujillo
- 03-23-23
Exactly what it says on the cover
A fine example of "as advertised, as delivered," Cawthorne's book offers a european history of witch hunts, unfair trials, corrupt systems, and unjustly executed people. It's a bit like drinking from the fire hose after case upon case comes across the page.
As a reader who was curious but was not deeply invested in the topic, it was a bit overwhelming. The recurring themes and echoes across countries and instances will stick with me but many of the specific cases fall victim to being very much like the one that precedes it, and the one proceeding.
Overall glad I read it, and it will be a fantastic reference for a student somewhere. Was a little dry for a recreational read, but I am by no means criticizing the overall work. Just didn't 100% gel with what I was in the mood for, but it's great for what it is.
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- Maurizio
- 02-24-22
A merciless look at the misdeeds of the Church
Listening to this book, one no longer wonders why the Church, even in the 21st century, delivers practically only negative headlines. One only wonders why this organisation with all its subgroups has not been completely abolished long ago.
This book about the history of witch hunts is excellently written and relentlessly shows what crimes against humanity are constantly committed in the name of religion.
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- Steven Gerweck
- 10-23-22
A necessary history lesson
As a history buff, I enjoyed Nigel Cawthorne's "Witches." Of course, due to the subject matter discussed (including brutal torture, misogyny, trauma, etc.), this book is not for the faintest of heart. Cawthorne traces the history of religious persecutions through the centuries. The book examines the roots of the Salem witch trials, and the many years of corruption, resulting in the deaths of many unfortunate individuals. Beyond physical torture, Cawthorne also documents rampant sexual abuse involving the religious institutions of the times. This is a sad story, but necessary history to be studied.
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- Robert P. Rock
- 07-17-24
Disturbing history
This was an interesting but difficult book to listen to. I applaud the narrator for her work as it would be very difficult to recount such horrors without it having an impact on her personally. It is good to have this history and I appreciate the author's work to thoroughly document the evil and violence of this era. my hope is, if you can listen to this entire book, that you will never forget what happened, the underlying circumstances that led to this persecution, and take heed of any vestiges that rise up in our time. It cannot be lost on the reader of the unbelievable and disproportionate impact on women during this persecution. I was shocked when it said about the persecution in Germany that a leader stopped it because there wouldn't be any women left in the region.
So sad that this ever happened but let us learn from it and never let it happen again.
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