A study of Tituba, a central character of the notorious Salem witch trials of 1692, based on skimpy historical evidence that could have been exhausted in one short article. The slave Tituba, accused of inducting young Salem innocents into the practice of witchcraft, has long presented fodder for the imagination. Unfortunately, she provides much less nourishment for a historical treatment. While the sorry tale of the Salem trials is well known—two young girls were suddenly afflicted with a strange illness involving fits, contortions, and other unexplainable symptoms, which were eventually attributed to witchery—Tituba's role in the affair and, more particularly, her life before and after 1692 are shrouded in mystery. This is partly due to the lack of documentation, which becomes conspicuous early in this treatment, with the preponderance of phrases such as ``it may well be'' and ``it is possible.'' The only definite records of Tituba's existence are found in relation to the Salem trials—the transcript of her examination, a warrant for her arrest, etc. Still, relying on the property records of a plantation owner in Barbados who can be connected to Tituba's Salem owner, Breslaw (History/Univ. of Tennessee) argues fairly persuasively that she was an Arawak-speaking American Indian, not African or Carib Indian as is often assumed. Breslaw also asserts that Tituba contributed significantly to events in Salem, not because she was guilty, but because her ``confession'' helped reshape the Puritans' belief in the devil by giving them a multicultural tale of sorcery with which to enhance their own notions of evil. But though Breslaw is convincing on these points, the book is so packed with repetition and filler (such as an illustration depicting a house that ``most closely resembles the Salem Parsonage where Tituba lived'') that the author often seems to be grasping at historical straws. (illustrations and maps, not seen)
Pub Date: Jan. 8, 1996
ISBN: 0-8147-1227-4
Page Count: 280
Publisher: New York Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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