Editorial Staff

Pulitzer-Winning Author Stacy Schiff on the Salem Witch Trials

/in , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

In our special Halloween edition of “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Pulitzer-Prize winner Stacy Schiff, whose most recent book is The Witches: Salem, 1692. They discuss why, in Schiff’s view, the Salem witch trials are the “the best known, least understood chapter” of American history, and why the trials, false charges, and finger pointing, remain relevant today in our Internet culture. They review the characteristics of the accused and accusers, and compare them to perceptions passed down through the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Miller, and others. They also explore the connection between Puritanism, with its iconoclastic principles, and the American founding; and how such a highly literate society based on piety and learning could devolve into one that embraces hocus pocus, superstition, and injustice. Schiff delves into the role of gender and race in the witch trials, and what colonial Salem teaches us about how hysteria can foment civil strife and violence. She concludes with a reading from The Witches: Salem, 1692.

Stories of the Week: In North Carolina, a lawsuit was filed against the state’s opportunity scholarship program that provides up to $4,200 a year in tuition assistance for low-income students to attend private schools. Will state legislators succeed in persuading the Court to dismiss the case? In Detroit, a financial review commission has agreed to release the public school system from state oversight after nearly 11 years, a hopeful sign for a beleaguered district.

The next episode will air on Wednesday, November 4th, 2020 at 12 pm ET with guest, Tara Ross, the nationally-recognized author of Why We Need the Electoral College.

Guest:

Stacy Schiff, a Pulitzer-Prize winner, is the author most recently of The Witches: Salem, 1692, which The New York Times hailed as “an almost novelistic, thriller-like narrative.” Her previous book, Cleopatra: A Life, was published to great acclaim in 2010, appearing on most year-end best books lists, including The New York Times’s Top Ten Books of 2010, and won the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for biography. Also a #1 bestseller, Cleopatra was translated into 30 languages. Schiff is the author of Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Saint-Exupéry, a Pulitzer Prize finalist; and A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, winner of the George Washington Book Prize, the Ambassador Award in American Studies, and the Gilbert Chinard Prize of the Institut Français d’Amérique. Her books have won numerous prestigious awards and honors and she’s received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities and was a Director’s Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Schiff has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Los Angeles Times, among many other publications.

Tweet of the Week:

Get Updates on Our Education Research

Related episodes:

Mortgage’s New Normal: Guide to Better Borrowing Amidst Higher Rates

Joe Selvaggi talks with mortgage expert, Trip Miller of Cambridge Savings Bank, about mortgage rates and trends and explores best practices for finding a mortgage structure that suits individual buyers’ needs.

Medicaid’s Massive Miasma: Taming Beacon Hill’s Burgeoning Budget Beast

Marc Joffe, a state policy analyst at the Cato Institute, talks about his research on Medicaid's cost and size. They explore how Massachusetts can control spending growth while protecting other priorities.

Baystate Budget Blues: Declining Revenue Causes Concern

Joe Selvaggi engages in a conversation with Pioneer Institute’s Eileen McAnneny, Senior Fellow for Economic Opportunity, to analyze the status of the 2024 budget. They compare actual revenue and spending with pre-July 1 estimates, investigating potential reasons for any surpluses or shortfalls. They also dive into policy implications for legislators as they approach fiscal 2025.

Smothering Gas Exports: President Sides with Environmentalists Over Environment

Dr. Benjamin Zycher, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, talks on the impact of President Biden's executive order to halt liquefied natural gas export approvals. He explores potential economic impacts, the response from trading partners, and the negligible effect on climate.

U.S. Manufacturing Health: Does the U.S. Need an Industrial Policy?

Scott Lincicome from the Cato Institute discusses the U.S. manufacturing industry, international trade, and industrial policy. He dispels the myth of manufacturing decline, highlighting sector evolution and productivity. The conversation moves to industrial policy, emphasizing the need for targeted protection and cautioning against broad subsidization due to potential inefficiencies.

Challenging Government Prerogatives: SCOTUS Reconsiders Deference to Executive Agencies

Joe Selvaggi engages in a conversation with legal scholar Ilya Shapiro from the Manhattan Institute regarding the Loper Bright Enterprises Supreme Court case that questions the Chevron Doctrine. This doctrine instructs judges to defer to government agencies in situations where laws are silent or unclear.

Harvard’s Sullied Halo: Journalists Teach Lesson on Plagiarism

Joe Selvaggi talks with investigative reporter Chris Brunet about his role investigating and exposing former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s academic plagiarism, a story that lead to her eventual resignation.

Drug Discount Distortions: How Middlemen Increase Costs and Reduce Access

Joe Selvaggi talks with Drs. Bill Smith and Robert Popovian about how the complex system of rebates from drug companies to insurance firms serve to increase costs and reduce access for patients.

Boston’s Building Bargain: Coaxing Commercial Conversions to Condos

Joe Selvaggi discusses the strategic goals of Boston's Downtown Office to Residential Conversion Pilot Program with Arthur Jemison, the head of BPDA planning. The aim is to transform underutilized offices in Downtown into vibrant places to live.

SCOTUS Wealth Tax: Are Appreciated Assets Income?

Joe Selvaggi talks with CATO Institute constitutional scholar Thomas Berry about the recently argued Moore v. U.S.A. case, which challenges the idea that income must be realized before it can be taxed.

Busting Big Business: Antitrust Comes for Google and Big Sandwich

Joe Selvaggi talks with Dr. Brian Albrecht, an economists with the International Center for Law and Economics. They separate fact from fiction when it comes to the public’s and politicians’ concerns over allegedly anti-consumer practices of big business and discuss when antitrust action by the federal government is justified.

Supreme Oral Arguments: Do Gun Rights Rest on Responsible Behavior

Joe Selvaggi engages in a conversation with constitutional scholar Attorney Clark Neily to explore the oral arguments presented in the US Supreme Court case USA v Rahimi. The discussion delves into the intricate examination of behavioral history and the legal processes involved in restricting an individual from owning a firearm.

Powering Earth’s Unplugged: Overcoming Barriers to Electricity Benefits Billions

Joe Selvaggi talks with energy journalist Robert Bryce about his views on the benefits and barriers to bringing cheap, abundant electricity to the nearly 4 billion people without access.

Peace Through Compassion

In a conversation between Joe Selvaggi and George Mason law professor Ilya Somin, Somin presents his viewpoint on the moral and strategic case for allowing free emigration of Palestinian refugees from the conflict zone to bolster Israel’s fight against Hamas terrorism.

Inflationary Debt Spiral: Fiscal Cliff Getting Closer, Faster

Joe Selvaggi discusses the consequences of record structural deficits and debt with budget expert Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. They delve into how these factors could impact the financial stability of Medicare and Social Security and examine the limited time available to avert a potential crisis.

Identity Politics Ideology: Woke’s Orthodoxy and Opposition to Liberal Values

Joe Selvaggi hosts a conversation with Johns Hopkins University Professor Yasha Mounk regarding "The Identity Trap," Mounk's latest book that delves into the origins of woke identity politics, its potential impact on classical liberal values, and strategies for its informed opponents to effectively counter its influence.

Federal Firearm Forfeiture: SCOTUS Considers Gun Rights and Due Process

Joe Selvaggi hosts a conversation with constitutional legal expert Clark Neily, who delves into the facts and legal complexities surrounding USA v. Rahimi, currently before the Supreme Court. This case questions the forfeiture of Second Amendment rights for individuals accused of domestic abuse.

Diversity’s Dubious Definition: Harvard Case Spells End to Racial Classifications

Joe Selvaggi discusses the implications of the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case for race and ethnicity-based programs with David Bernstein, a Distinguished Law Professor at George Mason University and an Adjunct Fellow at the CATO Institute.

Untangling Unsheltered Encampments: Home Is Where the Help Lies

Joe Selvaggi discusses the challenges posed by homeless encampments, like Boston's Mass and Cass, with Dr. Judge Glock, the director of research at the Manhattan Institute. They also explore policy alternatives aimed at addressing the needs of both the community and the unsheltered individuals.

Ruining Research Rewards: Price Controls Come for University Patents and Products

Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute Senior Fellow Dr. Bill Smith about the benefit of the Bayh-Dole Act’s protection of intellectual property rights for university research patents and the risk posed to the nation and the local economy from recent efforts to consider price controls on products developed from patented discoveries.