Culture Warrior: A Response to Michael Ostling's Review Essay on The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe

In this note, the author of The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe responds to Michael Ostling's critique of the book in his review essay "Secondary Elaborations: Realities and the Rationalization of Witchcraft" (Preternature 4, no. 2 (2015]: 203-10). Since Ostling presents the problems he sees with the book as consequences of motives he attributes to the author, this note first assesses these attributions, then analyzes a sample of criticisms of specific passages. Finally, this note presents a major point of the book that Ostling's review overlooks, and relates that point to the problems identified in his attribution of motives, evaluation of issues, and appreciation of the methodology the book employs.