Matt Goldish, Professor of History, just published his sixth book, Science and Spectors at Salem (Routledge Studies in the History of Witchcraft, Demonology and Magic, 2024), which turns to the Salem witch trial from the perspective of the intellectual background of the judges to understand why they accepted controversial types of evidence.

The role of judges in a witch trial was central. Goldish argues that in Salem the judges' acceptance of questionable touch tests and spectral evidence was a result of their intellectual commitments. Several of the Salem judges were highly educated, and some of them were adherents of a particular philosophical school in England led by Henry More and Joseph Glanvill which Goldish calls "the anti-Sadducees."

This book will interest lay readers wanting a better understanding of Salem, students and scholars of witch trials, American colonial history, Atlantic history, legal history and early modern Europe.