I am about two thirds of the way through Witches and Historians: Interpretations of Salem second edition by Marc Mappen. This book examines the historical views of what happened at Salem from Cotton Mather to Carol Karlsen and Richard Godbeer. I have read some interesting viewpoints that I have never considered before. One author, Lawrence Stone, made the point that although belief in the supernatural was a part of the culture at that time, the Reformation theologians had discarded the only "cure" for such ills as occured at Salem- practices such as exorcism. Another author, John Demos, analyzed the social and psychological characteristics of the participants. He found that the accused were mostly married women between the ages 40 and 60 with some kind of personal eccentricity. The accusers were divided into two categories- those that experienced fits who ended up being mostly single girls between the ages of 8 and 20, and those people who had experienced some misfortune th! at they attributed to witchcraft. This second group had no unifiying characteristic except that they tended to be neighbors of the accused! This is a very interesting book and I highly recommend it. Cindy