Historian and Author
I’m Professor of Early Modern History at the University of East Anglia, with a particular interest in the social and cultural history of England, Europe and North America, 1500-1800.
I’ve published five books, mostly about early modern witchcraft and witch-trials, but also crime, spiritualism, and colonial migration. The common theme in all my work is the recovery of past mentality and emotion – a theme continued in my latest book, Between Two Worlds: How the English Became Americans. It’s published in the US by Basic Books on 11 November, and in the UK by Oxford University Press on 20 November.
I’m currently working on a case study about witchcraft and heresy in a New England frontier town in the 1650s, a story full of fear and paranoia, rage and retribution, that speaks to modern times as well as its own.
I just purchased ‘Between Two Worlds: How the English Became Americans’. The book was highly recommended.