This collection has the laudable goal of tracking the course of magic from the early modern period into the modern world, where it is currently flourishing—despite the old chestnut that the world became disenchanted in the eighteenth century. As most historians of magic have successfully argued, Thomas’ conviction that the great powers of rational thought would destroy the hoary cobwebs of superstition was inherently inaccurate.1 By ascribing magic’s tenacity to the superstition of women and the poorly educated, Thomas overlooked the rigorous intellectual tradition behind academic magic, its place in the universities and monasteries, and its command over elite and popular understandings of the natural world. This collection addresses that error and examines the adoption of magic and its evolution in the modern world in compelling ways.
Styers’ chapter begins the volume by asking what superstition meant at different historical moments and in different contexts—a welcome contribution to magical...