Narcotic Culture in China

I just read a great book written by the guy who I want to study for my masters with is called,"narcotic culture" subtitled a history of drugs in china. By Frank Dikotter, (whose the professor) and Lars Laamann and Zhou Xun, (who are his reasearch assistants.) It's just so nice to read a book by a proffesor that doesn't automatically assume that all drugs are bad and that everyone who takes them is an addict but looks at moderate use, and cultural use. He also made very interesting comparisons between Europe and China, he pointed out how in Europe we are mainly a drinking culture, in england, gin, tea, and coffee, in china it was more of a smoking culture. The book challenged the long held belief that it was opium addiction that caused, or contributed to, the downfall of China's society. Rather it put forth the argument that most smoking of opium was either social, ritualized and not excessive, or it was used as self medication. It stated how the "cures" for opium addicts, which at the time included, morphine, cocaine and heroin (which i learned was originally a trade marked name of the bayer company) were much more harmful than smoking opium had been. But I'd recommend the book for anyone interested in the late qing, or republican period of china, (it covers from 1800-1950, with a chapter at the end of the state of things today) It's an interesting alternative viewpoint, that talks about a lot of things which to me were new. I'd also recommend it to anyone interested in the history of drugs and the social ramifications of them and how they've been embraced and criminalized.

Books on the witch trials in Europe

So in the past few months I've become interested in studying the witch trials, witch craze, and just generally the occult in Europe. Though I have to say, I have completely avoided the Salem witch trials in the books I've been reading. I've always been interested in the time period of the Tudors and Stuarts in England, and religion, but until now I've never really put the two together. I suppose part of the problem is that it can be hard to find good scholarly books on the subject, compared to the hoards of books on wicca, which I'm not really interested in at all.

As far as historical witchcraft goes I can recommend 4 books. The first, "Demonologie" written by JAMES I. He was a monarch who really believed in the existence of witches, and the common myths and stories surrounding them. He believed himself a victim of witchcraft as his ship was attacked by a storm while he was traveling to scotland, and presided at the trial. He wrote the book to let people know the real dangers they were facing, and to refute the cynics who didn't believe in witchcraft. It's very interesting to read source material, he was also a hard core Presbyterian, so that shows it wasn't just the catholics who did the persecuting. I'd been searching for this book for some time, wondering if it were still in print. I actually found it at amazon of all places and it was less than 10 bucks. I also found it's companion volume there. This is the book that was one of the books James was trying to refute. He actually had this book banned and all known copies of it burnt. It is Reginald Scott's "The Discoverie of Witchcraft". It's a refutation against most of the claims made about witches, and also talks of necromancers, and sorcerers and magic in general. I haven't quiet finished it yet, but have just been reading a very interesting bit listing a whole bunch of different charms that can be used against a great number of things. It's very interesting and MUCH longer but it can also get a bit distracting in it's theology as most of his arguments against it go, "well god would never allow that so obviously there can be no witchcraft". (to summarize not to quote directly.) It was written in 1584 and is also a cool historical document. Though i've heard of both books before, often quoted in books I was reading, it was nice to get my hands on the actual copies.

The book I've read that I like best about the witch hunts so far is, "Servants of Satan" subtitled, "The Age of the Witch Hunts", it's a cheesy title and to make matters worse has a hideous yellow cover but is really good. It talks a lot about the sexual politics of the whole thing as well as the history of persecution in europe and a little of the history of outsiders before witches.

Another book, while not directly relating to witch craft but still very interesting was, "The devil in early modern England," by Darren Oldridge. It's pretty much just about england, and focuses more on the devil than witches. But I found it really interesting, talking a lot about the common people's perception of the devil, and how the church tried to change it during the reformation. It's where I found a lot of the really cool stories, (folk tales really) of people who sell their souls to the devil and then outwit him instead of giving up their prize, frequently castrating him as well. So you know that's got to be fun!