Review: Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971)

[truepenny]

Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England by Keith Thomas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


800 (eight hundred) pages, dripping with primary source material, about astrology, witchcraft, and magic---and religion---in early modern England. Despite the suggestion of the title, Thomas is not arguing that religion CAUSED the decline of magic, although he does talk about why magic declined and religion did not.

The book is well-written, wide-ranging, and despite being 52 years old, does not feel terribly dated. A little old-fashioned, maybe (although that's partly the swarms of footnotes)---he's not using the various lenses that later historians are so fond of (Marxism, feminism, -ism, -ism, -ism), and there aren't any rhetorical tricks. No starting with an attention-grabbing anecdote or trying to interweave arguments or anything of the sort. Do not get me wrong; I think rhetorical tricks are great, except when all they're doing is hiding the lack of actual historiography going on, and I approve of feminism and Marxism and most of the other -isms. But I ALSO note that Sir Keith (he was knighted in 1988) is writing good historiography without any of that. He's also much easier to follow than he would be if he were pursuing an -ism, and in a book of this length and density, clarity is very decidedly a virtue.



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