'Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction' isn't a good title for this book. A better title would be 'A history of Witchcraft in Europe and the United States: A Very Short Introduction'. After reading the wonderful 'The wizard of the Crow' by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o I hoped to learn more about the role and history of witchcraft in African societies as well as witchcraft in the rest of the world. I didn't get that with this book.

What I didn't get either was an author who tried to be as subjective as possible. Malcolm Gaskill clearly doesn't believe in witches and disagrees with a number of historical theories. People who believe in witches are put away as reflecting their negative emotions, As a fellow non-believer in witches I find this really disrespectful. ( )

Enjoyed the brief history of witchcraft/wicca/paganism in this book! Almost gave it 4 stars, but it took me a while to finish it. It did make me want to read more about the history of witchcraft. ( )

I listened to this very short introduction book rather than read it.

This provides an informative introduction to the history of withcraft throughout the ages, though mostly focussing on persecutions, right up to modern times including the abuse of child witches in modern-day Nigeria recently featured in documentaries. It seems to take an unbiased view, and references many studies which investigate witchcraft and the circumstances under which accusations arose, including political and cultural.

An interesting introduction that opens up several avenues for investigating further. ( )