Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Based on historical people and real events, Arthur Miller's play uses the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence unleashed by the rumors of witchcraft as a powerful parable about McCarthyism. Introduction by Christopher Bigsby

The Crucible and Related Readings

by Tony Buzan, William Bly, Beth L. Tanis, Lona McGregor, Arthur Miller

The Crucible , Arthur Miller's classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts, is returning to Broadway. To mark the occasion, Penguin is pleased to offer this beautiful hardcover edition. "A powerful drama." (Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times )

Blindness

by Jose Saramago

A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears-through the barren streets, and the procession... (more)

The Salem Witch Trials Reader

by Frances Hill

A Da Capo Original: From the acclaimed author of A Delusion of Satan, a unique gathering of firsthand accounts about the background, course, and repercussions of the Salem witch trials. Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1692: against the backdrop of a Puritan theocracy threatened by change, in a population terrified not only of eternal damnation but of the earthly dangers of Indian massacres and recurrent... (more)

Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768

Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768

by Philip A. Kuhn

Midway through the reign of the Ch'ien-lung emperor, Hungli, in the most prosperous period of China's last imperial dynasty, mass hysteria broke out among the common people. It was feared that sorcerers were roaming the land, clipping off the ends of men's queues (the braids worn by royal decree), and chanting magical incantations over them in order to steal the souls of their owners. In a fascinating chronicle of... (more)

The Devil in Massachusetts, a Modern Inquiry Into the Salem Witch Trialsmarion starkey

The Devil in Massachusetts, a Modern Inquiry Into the Salem Witch Trials

by marion starkey

Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria

by Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist and psychologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. Although his theories remain controversial until this day, Freud made a lasting impact on Western culture.

Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 (Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award (Awards))

Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 (Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award (Awards))

by Mike Capuzzo

Combining rich historical detail and a harrowing, pulse-pounding narrative, Close to Shore brilliantly re-creates the summer of 1916, when a rogue Great White shark attacked swimmers along the New Jersey shore, triggering mass hysteria and launching the most extensive shark hunt in history. During the summer before the United States entered World War I, when ocean swimming was just becoming popular and... (more)

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Tags: hysteria

The Crucible

by Arthur Miller