Witchcraft and Folk Belief in the Age of Enlightenment

Lizanne Henderson has been a lecturer and cultural historian at the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, UK since 2004. She is Editor of Review of Scottish Culture and has published on the Scottish witch-hunts, folk belief, ballads, critical animal studies, Scottish diaspora, polar explorers, and the transatlantic slave trade. Her books include Fantastical Imaginations: The Supernatural in Scottish History and Culture (2009) and, with Edward J. Cowan, Scottish Fairy Belief: A History (2001), and A History of Everyday Life in Medieval Scotland, 1000 to 1600 (2011).

• Introduction: Following the Witch1. Fixing the Limits of Belief 2. The Idea of Witchcraft 3. Demons, Devilry and Domestic Magic: Hunting Witches in Scotland4. Darkness Visible5. Bemused, Bothered and Bewildered: Witchcraft Debated6. 'Worshipping at the Altar of Ignorance': Some Late Scottish Witchcraft Cases Considered7. The Survival of Witch Belief in South West Scotland: A Case Study8. The Persistence of Witch Belief Conclusion

“This book reveals a nuanced, shifting, and hitherto underexplored landscape of belief in the supernatural in Enlightenment-era Scotland. … Such historical empathy should be a model, not just for historians of the supernatural in Scotland, but for all of us interested in the experiences of people living in worlds just as real—and fantastical—as our own.” (Michelle D. Brock, Magic Ritual and Witchcraft, Vol. 12 (3), 2017)