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Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. By Stuart Clark. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. 827 pp. L25 (pbk). ISBN 0-19-820808-1
In the present academic climate, when the pressure is on to produce quickly and in quantity, a huge book such as Thinking with Demons is a relatively rare thing. The sheer size may appear daunting to the casual reader or undergraduate, but this book is not only monumental in size but also in its depth of erudition. It is a book that explores not only the ideas of the demonologists but their place in the wider intellectual world of early modern Europe.
The book is divided into five sections, each dealing with a different context: language, science, history, religion, and politics. Clark's aim is to explore the congruencies and incongruities of early modern theories of witchcraft within these categories of thought. The style in which intellectual history is written can sometimes be a turn-off for those not already well versed in the subject, but Clark writes with a clarity and patience that encourages a dedicated reading of the text and, considering the length of the book, that is no...