In 1692, Salem, Massachusetts became the center of an unusually large concentration of accusations of witchcraft, a common occurrence in contemporary Europe but rare in the British-American colonies. For 300 years scholars, novelists, and (now) film-makers have used this event as a window into religious, economic, and political change in early modern Euro-American culture; recently, gender and sexuality have been placed at the center of the analysis. We survey the vast literature (including published primary sources) on American cases of witchcraft, look at the politics of witchcraft in Europe for comparative purposes, and give a close critical reading of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible and the recent film version. Students will write weekly responses to the assigned reading and construct a research paper on some aspect of the historical problems we raise. Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on this written work (the weekly responses will count for 25% of the grade, the research paper for 50%, and the quality of contributions to class discussion will be 25% of grade) and participation in class discussion. Enrollment limit:15 (expected: 10-15). Preference to History majors. Groups A and D