The Once & Future Witch Hunt

A Descendant's Reckoning from Salem to the Present

By: Alice Markham-Cantor, Silvia Federici (Afterword By), Rebecca Traister (Foreword By) - introduction

Narrated by: Rebecca Gallagher

As the descendant of Martha Carrier, an accused woman executed at Salem, Alice Markham-Cantor presents a riveting story that spans centuries and brings the historical significance of the witch trials into modern times.



Extensively researched and told through alternating fiction and nonfiction chapters, this book illuminates a shocking truth: contrary to popular opinion, the witch hunts never ended. Alice shares research that suggests tens of thousands of witch hunt–related deaths have happened all over the world in the last thirty years. The Once & Future Witch Hunt also features tantalizing glimpses into Alice's ancestors' lives and reimagines the trials through fact-based fiction.



At the intersection of witchcraft, feminism, anthropology, and history, this book gives us as authentic a retelling as may ever be possible while trying to answer that single, irrepressible question: how could this have happened?©2024 Alice Markham-Cantor

A comprehensive look at the Salem Witch Trials

coming into this book I didn't have a lot of knowledge about the Salem Witch Trials. I wanted to read something that would give me a good deep look into it and this book was perfect for that! The book is written in a unique format. One chapter is a historical fiction look at Martha Carrier's life (she is the however many great grandmother of the author who was killed in the trials). The next chapter is the author's unpacking of the previous chapter and insight into her research process. I was completely blown away and bewildered by how these witch trials came to be, the history of witch trials throughout the world and the fact that these are still going on today. The author needs to be credited for the amount of research she did, her heart and passion for the subject, and how she brought it all together in a beautiful story and a comprehensive analysis. I hope we can all learn from these trials how to be better humans. The world needs it.

Witch hunting is still alive.

This book is about her relatives life. it shows you how the witch hunt started and that it is still around today. maybe not in America but in other countries. This book shows the sadness of the accused.

Strong start, drags a bit, but valuable history

The story starts out like a house on fire, It very much draws the listener into the history and mystery of witch hunts and the witch trials. And it sustains for quite a while, I was pleasantly surprised. But there comes a point, hard to put a finger on exactly where the momentum of the enterprise starts to slow. Maybe it's the author's navel-gazing contemplations on what her ancestry means for her life upon learning uneasy truths. Or perhaps it's the time spent humoring the spiritualist and toying, though never quite seriously, with the idea that Martha Carrier is somehow monitoring this investigation in her spectral realm. But there definitely was a point where the author hit a wall.

Frankly, I think the listings of modern day witch-hunts perpetrated around the world, primarily in the name of promoting Christianity, could have taken a larger role than it did. And it was a bit odd that only in the Epilogue do we really get any forceful political rhetoric that hits at the core of the problem, beside an early reference to the independence and power of women being anathema to the Christian society. BTW, I am absolutely in agreement with everything stated regarding the religious intolerance and misogyny a prime motivations. I just think it needed more.

Narration was fine, though I could have done without the characterizations of nationalities and children speaking. A well written story doesn't need such hand holding.

A Book that Makes You Feel the Salem Witch Trials

I know the history of the Salem Witch Trials but this book really humanizes the trials. It makes you feel what these poor people went through. It also talks about present day witch hunts. It is really good and I will listen to it again. The author clearly did a lot of research and told the story in a way that fully honors her ancestor. I highly recommend it.