Situating his study in the context of a pervasive magical worldview that embraced both orthodox Christianity and folk belief, Dillinger shows that, in some cases, witch trials themselves were used as magical instruments, designed to avert threats of impending divine wrath. "Evil People" describes a two-century evolution in which witch hunters who liberally bestowed the label "evil people" on others turned into modern images of evil themselves.
In the original German, "Evil People" won the Friedrich Spee Award as an outstanding contribution to the history of witchcraft.
Johannes Dillinger is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England. Laura Stokes is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Stanford University.