The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft and Magic ed. by Owen Davies (review)

In this richly illustrated collection, Owen Davies and his contributors aim to provide a history of witchcraft and magic. While the book is readable and compelling (not in small part because of its images and other visual data), readers might expect a genealogy of Western magic that is more than a comprehensive history of the topic. Those familiar with existing scholarship should not be surprised by this—the topic is far too broad and contested to be covered in a single text. The collection is ambitious (and helpful), but readers should be cautious about expectations.

The book contains nine chapters that cover magic in the ancient world, medieval magic, the witch trials, popular magic, modern magic, witches in film, and more. Holistically, these contributions present an overview of magic that emphasizes the apparently perennial appeal of witchcraft and associated ideas to the Western cultural imagination. Each of these is, perhaps, best utilized as an extensive encyclopedia entry rather than a critical academic analysis of the topic at hand, largely because of the lack of engagement with existing scholarship.

Among the most successful is Charles Zika's chapter on the witch and the magician in European art. Using multiple images from across Europe, from about 1490 to 1800, he traces how depictions of witches and magicians both documented and, in turn, influenced public conceptions of the same. Chronicling cultural shifts through these images, Zika puts popular tropes into their historical contexts. For example, he connects the shift in depictions of single or triads of witches to larger collectives to a reimagining of witchcraft as "a conspiratorial association at the very heart of Christian society" (149). Throughout, he points out how societal tensions and fears—cultural, political, and religious—are incorporated into, and worked out, through the image of the witch.

The text is strongest in its use of visuals, which include diverse images from ancient figurines, to medieval broadsides, to stills from TV shows and movies. These add a dynamism to the text and provide concrete examples to the sometimes dry historical explanations. Instructors may find the book helpful, especially in an undergraduate classroom, but should expect to use it as a supplement to other texts that would provide greater depth and context to the broad overview given by these contributions. In particular, the category of "magic," especially its sometimes nebulous distinction from "religion" from an etic perspective, is given short shrift—an unfortunate oversight given the book's goals.

Robert J. Wallis' chapter covering the anthropological engagement with witchcraft and magic helps to flesh out some of the challenges of these terms. As he points out, "they are labels loaded with baggage, 'discursive constructs,' and problematic grounds on which to characterize indigenous ontologies … and epistemologies … or 'lifeways'" (226). While readers will appreciate this concentrated effort to complicate and contextualize these terms and their varied usage, the contributors could do more throughout the book to do so. Indeed, this is the only chapter that clearly and effectively engages with existing scholarship on the topic and includes relevant citations.

In his foreword, Davies points out that "magic both reflects and is shaped by changes in environment, religion, science, and social relations over time" (vii), but few chapters are successful in demonstrating how this fact impacts our understanding. Overall, this ambitious project presents a helpful, visually stimulating contribution that should find a home as supplemental reading material in relevant undergraduate courses.