Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-century English Tragedy

In 1645, Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne exploited the anxiety and lawlessness of the time and initiated a brutal campaign to drive out the presumed evil in their midst. Gaskill recounts the most savage witch-hunt in English history. By the fall of 1647 at least 250 people had been captured, interrogated, and tried, with more than 100 hanged.