Richard Godbeer – författare

The Salem witch hunt of 1692 is among the most infamous events in early American history; however, it was not the only such episode to occur in New England that year. Escaping Salem reconstructs the "other witch hunt" of 1692 that took place in Stamford, Connecticut. Concise and accessible, the book takes students on a revealing journey into the mental world of early America, shattering the stereotype of early New Englanders as quick to accuse and condemn. Drawing on eyewitness testimony, Richard Godbeer tells the story of Kate Branch, a seventeen-year-old afflicted by strange visions and given to blood-chilling wails of pain and fright. Branch accused several women of bewitching her, two of whom were put on trial for witchcraft. Escaping Salem takes us inside the Connecticut courtroom and into the minds of the surprisingly skeptical Stamford townspeople. Were the pain and screaming due to natural or supernatural causes? Was Branch simply faking the symptoms? And if she was indeed bewitched, why believe her specific accusations, since her information came from demons who might well be lying? For the judges, Godbeer shows, the trial was a legal thicket. All agreed that witches posed a real and serious threat, but proving witchcraft (an invisible crime) in court was another matter. The court in Salem had become mired in controversy over its use of dubious evidence. In an intriguing chapter, Godbeer examines Magistrate Jonathan Selleck''s notes on how to determine the guilt of someone accused of witchcraft, providing an illuminating look at what constituted proof of witchcraft at the time. The stakes were high--if found guilty, the two accused women would be hanged. In the afterword, Godbeer explains how he used the trial evidence to build his narrative, offering an inside perspective on the historian''s craft. Featuring maps, photos, and a selected bibliography, Escaping Salem is ideal for use in undergraduate U.S. survey courses. It can also be used for courses in colonial American history, culture, and religion; witchcraft in the early modern world; and crime and society in early America.

The Devil's Dominion examines the use of folk magic by ordinary men and women in early New England. The book describes in vivid detail the magical techniques used by settlers and the assumptions which underlaid them. Godbeer argues that layfolk were generally far less consistent in their beliefs and actions than their ministers would have liked; even church members sometimes turned to magic. The Devil's Dominion reveals that the relationship between magical and religious belief was complex and ambivalent: some members of the community rejected magic altogether, but others did not. Godbeer argues that the controversy surrounding astrological prediction in early New England paralleled clerical condemnation of magical practice, and that the different perspectives on witchcraft engendered by magical tradition and Puritan doctrine often caused confusion and disagreement when New Englanders sought legal punishment of witches.

In 1695, John Miller, a clergyman traveling through New York, found it appalling that so many couples lived together without ever being married and that no one viewed "ante-nuptial fornication" as anything scandalous or sinful. Charles Woodmason, an Anglican minister in South Carolina in 1766, described the region as a "stage of debauchery" in which polygamy was "very common," "concubinage general," and "bastardy no disrepute." These depictions of colonial North America's sexual culture sharply contradict the stereotype of Puritanical abstinence that persists in the popular imagination. In Sexual Revolution in Early America, Richard Godbeer boldly overturns conventional wisdom about the sexual values and customs of colonial Americans. His eye-opening historical account spans two centuries and most of British North America, from New England to the Caribbean, exploring the social, political, and legal dynamics that shaped a diverse sexual culture.Drawing on exhaustive research into diaries, letters, and other private papers, as well as legal records and official documents, Godbeer's absorbing narrative uncovers a persistent struggle between the moral authorities and the widespread expression of popular customs and individual urges. Godbeer begins with a discussion of the complex attitude that the Puritans had toward sexuality. For example, although believing that sex could be morally corrupting, they also considered it to be such an essential element of a healthy marriage that they excommunicated those who denied "conjugal fellowship" to their spouses. He next examines the ways in which race and class affected the debate about sexual mores, from anxieties about Anglo-Indian sexual relations to the sense of sexual entitlement that planters held over their African slaves. He concludes by detailing the fundamental shift in sexual culture during the eighteenth century towards the acceptance of a more individualistic concept of sexual desire and fulfillment.Today's moral critics, in their attempts to convince Americans of the social and spiritual consequences of unregulated sexual behavior, often harken back to a more innocent age; as this groundbreaking work makes clear, America's sexual culture has always been rich, vibrant, and contentious.

“Without Gilbert and Sullivan, there would be no Sondheim, no Lloyd Webber, no Lin-Manuel Miranda. Their operettas laid the groundwork for the modern musical, blending satire, melody and narrative in a way that still resonates today.” (Telegraph) The Gilbert and Sullivan operas – including The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance – rapidly became a theatrical sensation when they premiered in late Victorian London. Despite their seeming trivial character, the operas’ libretti, musical settings, and performance style were so innovative as to be revolutionary. Empire of Topsy-Turvy provides a vivid, fresh, and accessible account of why and how these path-breaking nineteenth-century comic operas by dramatist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan became such a spectacular success in Britain and a lasting national institution. Gilbert’s topsy-turvy satire combined with Sullivan’s equally satirical and charming music created a distinctive genre of light operatic entertainment. This new critical study, in turn, combines biography, storyline and analysis to delve into Gilbert and Sullivan’s performance style and the appeal of the operas and the Savoy Theatre to a strait-laced middle-class audience and nationalistic sentiment. Designed for all readers interested in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas as well as theatrical history in general, and drawing on extensive research from archival sources on both sides of the Atlantic, alongside recent work by other scholars, Empire of Topsy-Turvy explains how the Gilbert and Sullivan phenomenon emerged in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, what made the operas so innovative, and why they drew such large and devoted audiences.

“Without Gilbert and Sullivan, there would be no Sondheim, no Lloyd Webber, no Lin-Manuel Miranda. Their operettas laid the groundwork for the modern musical, blending satire, melody and narrative in a way that still resonates today.” (Telegraph) The Gilbert and Sullivan operas – including The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance – rapidly became a theatrical sensation when they premiered in late Victorian London. Despite their seeming trivial character, the operas’ libretti, musical settings, and performance style were so innovative as to be revolutionary. Empire of Topsy-Turvy provides a vivid, fresh, and accessible account of why and how these path-breaking nineteenth-century comic operas by dramatist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan became such a spectacular success in Britain and a lasting national institution. Gilbert’s topsy-turvy satire combined with Sullivan’s equally satirical and charming music created a distinctive genre of light operatic entertainment. This new critical study, in turn, combines biography, storyline and analysis to delve into Gilbert and Sullivan’s performance style and the appeal of the operas and the Savoy Theatre to a strait-laced middle-class audience and nationalistic sentiment. Designed for all readers interested in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas as well as theatrical history in general, and drawing on extensive research from archival sources on both sides of the Atlantic, alongside recent work by other scholars, Empire of Topsy-Turvy explains how the Gilbert and Sullivan phenomenon emerged in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, what made the operas so innovative, and why they drew such large and devoted audiences.

When eighteenth-century American men described "with a swelling of the heart" their friendships with other men, addressing them as "lovely boy" and "dearly beloved," celebrating the "ardent affection" that knit their hearts in "indissoluble bonds of fraternal love," their families, neighbors, and acquaintances would have been neither surprised nor disturbed. Richard Godbeer's groundbreaking new book examines loving and sentimental friendships among men in the colonial and revolutionary periods. Inspired in part by the eighteenth-century culture of sensibility and in part by religious models, these relationships were not only important to the personal happiness of those involved but also had broader social, religious, and political significance. Godbeer shows that in the aftermath of Independence, patriots drafted a central place for male friendship in their social and political blueprint for the new republic. American revolutionaries stressed the importance of the family in the era of self-government, reimagining it in ways appropriate to a new and democratized era. They thus shifted attention away from patriarchal authority to a more egalitarian model of brotherly collaboration.In striving to explore the inner emotional lives of early Americans, Godbeer succeeds in presenting an entirely fresh perspective on the personal relationships and political structures of the period. Scholars have long recognized the importance of same-sex friendships among women, but this is the first book to examine the broad significance ascribed to loving friendships among men during this formative period of American history. Using an array of personal and public writings, The Overflowing of Friendship will transform our understanding of early American manhood as well as challenge us to reconsider the ways we think about gender in this period.