An Abundance of Witches

An Abundance of Witches examines the great Scottish witch-hunt, concentrating on the intense outbreak of persecution between 1658 and 1662. P. G. Maxwell-Stuart places these events within a Scotland shaped by political upheaval, religious conviction and changing forms of authority.

The book considers how nine years of effective English rule, followed by the Restoration in 1660, affected official attitudes towards witchcraft. It also examines the force of revived Calvinist religion, which helped create an atmosphere where accusations attracted unprecedented hostile attention. Rather than treating witch-hunting as an isolated superstition, Maxwell-Stuart presents it as a historical process formed by the interaction of law, politics, religion and local fears.