Brad Austin, PhD, and Donna A. Seger, PhD
Salem History Without Witches
In advance of the 400th anniversary of the European settlement of Salem, Massachusetts, Seger and Austin have co-edited a collection of essays which will be published by Temple University Press under the title: Salem’s Centuries: New Perspectives on the History of an Old American City, 1626-2026. This presentation will discuss the conception of the book and the challenges of presenting multiple narratives of Salem’s history with a dominant discourse focused overwhelmingly on the Witch Trials of 1692. Salem’s “other” history is the general history of less storied places, and its experience of peace and war includes essential stories which simply have not been told. They will examine the rise and evolution of Salem’s “Witch City” identity, and how that identity has informed its historical representations.
Brad Austin, PhD, is the current chair of the History Department at Salem State University, where he also serves as a professor of American history and coordinator of teacher education. He is an editor for the Harvey Goldberg Series for Understanding and Teaching History at the University of Wisconsin Press, for which he has also authored several titles, and the author of Democratic Sports: Men’s and Women’s College Athletics During the Great Depression.
Donna A. Seger, PhD, is the past chair of the History Department at Salem State University, where she is professor of medieval and early modern European History. She is the author of The Practical Renaissance: the Quest for Information in Early Modern England, and maintains the long-running blog on Salem history, “Streets of Salem.”
