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A review by siria
A Demon-Haunted Land: Witches, Wonder Doctors, and the Ghosts of the Past in Post-WWII Germany by Monica Black
informative
3.75
In A Demon-Haunted Land, Monica Black explores how the emotional and psychological fall-out of WWII led to a surge in belief in faith healers and in witchcraft accusations in 1950s/60s Germany. She argues that this particular uptick in such beliefs arose at least in part from a collective denial of guilt/responsibility for Nazi war crimes which led to many Germans seeing themselves as the war's true victims. Black's argument is sometimes more convincing in the micro than in the macro, and the structure didn't always best support it, but this is still an interesting and clearly argued read.
I'd recommend this more for an academic/upper-level undergraduate or graduate classroom audience, however; despite the sexed-up subtitle, this is an academic book, not a work of popular history.
(The audiobook narrator's pronunciation of German was very "..... Well, you tried.")
I'd recommend this more for an academic/upper-level undergraduate or graduate classroom audience, however; despite the sexed-up subtitle, this is an academic book, not a work of popular history.
(The audiobook narrator's pronunciation of German was very "..... Well, you tried.")