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For most historians living through the fascist and communist tyrannies that culminated in World War II and the Cold War, the Salem witch trials signified the threat to truth and individual rights posed by mass ideological movements. Work produced in this era – foremost of which was Marion L. Starkey’s The Devil in Massachusetts (1949), the study on which Arthur Miller based his 1953 play, The Crucible – left little doubt that most intellectuals’ sympathies lay with the twenty innocent victims who stood up to Puritan intolerance. In Switching Sides, Tony Fels traces a remarkable shift in scholarly interpretations of the Salem witch hunt from the post-World War II era up through the present. Determined to champion the common people of colonial New England, dismissive toward liberal values, and no longer instinctively wary of utopian belief systems, the leading works on the subject to emerge from 1969 through the early 2000s highlight economic changes, social tensions, racial conflicts, and political developments that served to unsettle the accusers in the witchcraft proceedings. These interpretations, still dominant in the academic world, encourage readers to sympathize with the perpetrators of the witch hunt while at the same time showing indifference or even hostility toward the accused. 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But in the leading works on the subject to emerge from 1969 through the early 2000s, historians have shockingly shown greater understanding for the witch hunt’s accusers, expressing indifference or even hostility toward the accused. Switching Sides explains how this surprising reversal came about. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/a303356b-41da-4c0f-952e-4da8a3ac9b35/witch+hunting+01.jpg Witch Hunting - Make it stand out Howard Pyle engraving, “Salem Witch Trial. Accusation of bedeviled girl.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 1893, https://smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489 https://www.tonyfels.com/about daily 0.75 2022-04-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/1648146365073-ET36BZLN2H9V8ONH96KT/witch+hunting+01.jpg About - Witch Hunting https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/1648146363844-67BPWE6FS1XXIGK6TKYX/freemasonry+01+edit.jpg About - Freemasonry https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/1648146365066-VOATEBWKQBN583F14LO2/universities+%26+education.jpg About - Universities & Education https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/1648146363361-I4VCMJNP36326OK5T7S4/american+religious+history.jpg About - American Religious History https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/1648146364264-0FV42NQ6WP7NFGEU1DU8/race+relations.jpg About - Race Relations https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/1648146363130-0BUBEK3B027D02CZNMF8/contemporary+politics.jpg About - Contemporary Politics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/ccbb03c7-79cc-4672-965e-ea2f39242fa2/tony+fels+headshot.jpg About - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.tonyfels.com/switching-sides daily 0.75 2022-04-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/c9072711-c45c-42a8-af99-6a900451f0c5/switching+sides+cover+on+white.jpg Switching Sides - Switching Sides How a Generation of Historians Lost Sympathy for the Victims of the Salem Witch Hunt. For most historians living through the fascist and communist tyrannies that culminated in World War II and the Cold War, the Salem witch trials signified the threat to truth and individual rights posed by mass ideological movements. Work produced in this era – foremost of which was Marion L. Starkey’s The Devil in Massachusetts (1949), the study on which Arthur Miller based his 1953 play, The Crucible – left little doubt that most intellectuals’ sympathies lay with the twenty innocent victims who stood up to Puritan intolerance. In Switching Sides, Tony Fels traces a remarkable shift in scholarly interpretations of the Salem witch hunt from the post-World War II era up through the present. Determined to champion the common people of colonial New England, dismissive toward liberal values, and no longer instinctively wary of utopian belief systems, the leading works on the subject to emerge from 1969 through the early 2000s highlight economic changes, social tensions, racial conflicts, and political developments that served to unsettle the accusers in the witchcraft proceedings. These interpretations, still dominant in the academic world, encourage readers to sympathize with the perpetrators of the witch hunt while at the same time showing indifference or even hostility toward the accused. Readers will come away from Switching Sides with a sound knowledge of what is currently known about the Salem witch hunt, as they also ponder the relationship between works of history and the ideological influences on the historians who write them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/70303c60-e554-4d7d-a5dc-3c3779a2de7f/switching+sides+table+of+contents.png Switching Sides - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.tonyfels.com/freemasonry daily 0.75 2022-04-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/887b86fd-10ca-4387-8a5d-c62dcc2c32af/freemasonry+01+edit+crop.jpg Freemasonry - Make it stand out Punchboard needlepoint wall hanging, displayed in Masonic homes, ca. 1875, from illustration in Mark A. Tabbert, American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities (National Heritage Museum & NYU Press, 2005), p. 86. https://www.tonyfels.com/universities-education daily 0.75 2022-04-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/c23f80ec-d1b8-4a9f-8a68-6d939b00ac7a/universities+%26+education.jpg Universities & Education - Make it stand out Parrish Hall, Swarthmore College, personal photo. https://www.tonyfels.com/american-religious-history daily 0.75 2022-04-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/24da5e5a-79ad-4c0b-a34f-6be7cb220563/american+religious+history.jpg American Religious History - Make it stand out Trinity Episcopal Church, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, personal photo. https://www.tonyfels.com/race-relations daily 0.75 2022-04-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62029a3bf0e6914ace8b5b7c/f2ed16cc-00d4-4d55-be61-10c1c98a7d87/race+relations.jpg Race Relations - Make it stand out “Marchers with signs at the March on Washington, 1963,” original black and white photo by Marion S. 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