Magic in Early Modern England

Reviews / Votes

That Moore leads the reader to this dark abyss by the middle of his book is commendable, as his meticulous narrative temperament demands a denouement in the third act. Magic in Early Modern England is a serious book, wherein Moore posits and provides proof that "modernity is obsessed with the acquisition of supernatural power." * Renaissance Quarterly * Modern science and technology are routinely understood as sharp departures from, and as correctives to, a pre-modern fascination with magic. Andrew Moore revises this understanding. Drawing largely on early modern English sources, Moore shows us that men in both worlds have been driven by a common impulse to attain supernatural power over their lives, to account for and relieve distress. This book adds significantly to our knowledge of early-modern thought and social views, and it brings the reader into closer contact with a past world that, with respect to the issue of science and magic, is not past. -- Luigi Bradizza, Salve Regina University "Andrew Moore has written a compelling and thought-provoking work that contests the prevalent view of a "decline of magic" brought about through the rise of the modern world with its science and technology. Moore, through detailed and innovative analysis of Early Modern English literature, philosophy, and texts of magical practice, presents the modern world as both crucially shaped by and realized through magic. This argument opens a far more nuanced approach to the interplay between an emerging modernity and the seemingly dark arts of magic and witchcraft." -- Neil Roberts, King's University College