The works listed will allow your students to further explore the theme of When Fear Drives Mass Hysteria and other themes related to The Crucible:


Fiction
Bradbury, Ray. Exorcism, from The Collected Works of Ray Bradbury. New York: Knopf, 1970. A short story about witches and magic in contemporary America. (average)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Viking, 1983. The story of an adulterous woman ostracized by her Puritan neighbors in colonial Massachusetts. (challenge)

Kafka, Franz. The Trial. New York: Schocken, 1971. The hero of this story becomes the victim of unseen forces and is accused of unnamed crimes. Kafka's book is a nighmarish look at the judicial process and the mechanistic character of modern society. (challenge)


Nonfiction
Hansen, Chadwick. The Salem Witch Trials. New York: Braziller, 1969. Scholarly examination of the phenomenon of persecution. (challenge)

Mather, Cotton. Wonders of the Invisible World. Amherst, WI: Amherst, 1862. Cotton Mather is considered the leading theologian of his era and was a central figure in witch trials throughout New England. This particular book deals almost exclusively with supernatural matters, and provides insight into the thought processes of those who sat in judgment of Salem's "witches." (challenge)

Starkley, Marion. The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Inquiry into the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Time, 1949. This book relates the events of the Salem witch trials as a historical narrative. Starkley's exploration of the psychological and political undercurrents in Salem Village is particularly insightful. (average)