Reviews for Women in Nineteenth-Century Europe

The average rating for Women in Nineteenth-Century Europe based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-10-04 00:00:00 Koseki Manabu The intellectual, historical, and cultural/sociological origins of the European Witch-Trials are explored in Europe's Inner Demons. A thought-provoking and compelling introduction to the issue. Norman Cohn looks at early/Medieval Christianity, early European history, and the role of mass hysteria coupled with cunning political manipulations that led to the outburst of mass-murder in the 15th through the 17th century. Thereafter the trials slowly decreased and finally vanished'though there have been periodic outbursts of this in the world since. There is also an interesting chapter on the Knights Templar that is sure to interest many people. If there is a negative to Prof. Cohn's book it is that it focuses on the Witch Trials as a fundamentally European activity. Certainly, the particular expression of this pathology was European, but Witch Trials and killings [judicial or extra-judicial] have been and continue to be a fact of world history and current events. The greatest and most disturbing of these trials came from Europe - no doubt about that. Still, what is needed is a global study of these and the causes behind them. Because this book was first published in 1975 Prof. Cohn was bounded by the perspectives and data of the time. What is needed, however, is a global history of this phenomenon. That being said, this is a wonderful introduction to the history of the origins of the European Witch Trials. Europe's Inner Demons is not a history of the Witch Trials, but, rather, a history of the origin of these…which is something readers interested in the history need to take into consideration. The work is thoughtful, comprehensive [within the limits of space], erudite, and insightful. Also, and this is no small thing, it is accessible to general readers with a little patience and the willingness to spend 288 pages of reading time on such a bleak subject. Highly Recommended for readers of European History in general and those readers interested in the Witch Trials in particular. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-05-21 00:00:00 Stephanie Reichel Cohn spends a great deal of time in deconstructing the work of other scholars, and although I was pretty much expressly forbidden from doing that in my dissertation (and I still don't quite understand why), I enjoy that kind of analysis, and Cohn is very good at it. His intellectual project is largely about the ways in which those arguments got constructed. Cohn is taking apart the myths modern scholars have invented and perpetuated about the origins of the European witch-hunts. His focus is the way that European commentators, scholarly and otherwise, chose stories that they wished to be true, and folded, spindled, and mutilated their source material until it seemed to be telling that story. It is not an accident that one of Cohn's other books is on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Warrant For Genocide: The Myth Of The Jewish World Conspiracy And The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion), which is one of the most ineradicable, evil fictions in the history of Western thought. Cohn emphasizes the necessity of going back to the primary sources and paying attention to what they actually say, rather than our preconceived notions of what they should say.