ABSTRACT
The European witchcraft debate;$ far from being concluded. This will be the case as long as historians and other sodal scientists continue to unearth llew material and develop diverging "iews on the complex problems of E'Jropean witchcraft. Trevor-Roper's daring" essay of the late 1960s on the European witch-craze seems to mark both the end and the beginning of an era of witchcraft rt'search."' A similarly broad range and synthesis are not to be found in witchcraft studie:; of the next two decades: Unlike Trevor-Roper, mf)st later authors tended to emphasize the empirical side of research, rather than being tempted into sweeping gent'ralizations. Howe\'er, in a way Trevor-Roper was also an exponent of the new period, \ ... ·hich can be characterized by a growing interest in and use of the approaches of other soci.al s.ciences. One only has to be reminded of Trevor-Roper's frequent use of terms like social, social conflict, stress, scapegoating, etc., to get the point, however his dforts are otherwise evaluated.
