The Last Witch of Langenburg: Murder in a German Village by Thomas Robisheaux

This book recounts the trial of Anna Schmeig, the last woman tried and executed for witchcraft in Langenburg, now part of Germany. This book does an excellent job of taking an historic incident (this particular witch trial) and, using the techniques of microhistory, showing how that incident reflects larger regional insecurities. Robisheaux does an excellent job contextualizing the political, social, and religious lives of the people in Langenburg at this particular time. I also thought the book did a particularly fine job in its handling of witchcraft. Instead of rushing to condemn the courts, the book took the period's assumptions and procedures about witchcraft at face value, and demonstrated the presence of the rule of law, and showed how the players accepted (and in one case ignored) the law's specific requirements. The part that was missing, however, was a modern assessment of the crime. Was Anna Fessler really poisoned by arsenic? Did Anna Schmeig really commit the murder? Was she trying to murder her son-in-law and daughter instead? I wanted more information (perhaps even speculation) from the author.