LA CITTA' INDEMONIATA | 1986 | P. BOYER E S. NISSENBAUM

The City Possessed: Salem and the Social Origins of Witchcraft investigates the famous witch trials in Salem (1692) through a social-history lens. Rather than seeing Salem as simply a moral panic or supernatural madness, Boyer and Nissenbaum explore its origins in economic tensions, land disputes, church membership conflicts, and divisions between Salem Village and Salem Town. They reconstruct how local power structures, neighbors’ relationships, and demographic pressures created social fissures that helped fuel accusations. The book is built on meticulous archival research and presents witchcraft accusations as entangled with the everyday life of a colonial Puritan community confronting growth, inequality, and instability. It is a key work in the study of witchcraft historiography, colonial America, and the interface of religion, society, and conflict.