Egy társadalomtörténeti klasszikus genezise: Paul Boyer és Stephen Nissenbaum Salem Possessed című könyvének keletkezéstörténete
The Genesis of a Classic of Social History: Salem Possessed by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum

Summary/Abstract: Stephen Nissenbaum’s famous Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft is not interpretable in its entirety without contextualising it in the period of American history and the state of historiography at the time of its conception. Lévai suggests that the genesis of the book can be interpreted in the context of four major approaches: microhistory, anthropology, psychohistory, and American history. Establishing that the original intent of the authors cannot be fully grasped without the latter, Lévai first interprets the book in the context of historical events in the 1960s and 1970s and then in that of the state of the American historical profession in the same period. Finally he proceeds to investigate the book’s role in the debate about the historical mission of the United States. Lévai undergirds his inquiry with the systematic analysis of the subcontexts and discourses that constitute his interpretative framework.

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