Thomas Waters | Imperial College London (original) (raw)

Papers by Thomas Waters

Journal of British Studies, 2015

This essay explores the attitudes of the British middle classes towards witchcraft, ghosts, and o... more This essay explores the attitudes of the British middle classes towards witchcraft, ghosts, and other so-called superstitions from the mid-eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries. Conventional historiographical wisdom maintains that belief in magic among middle-class Britons declined gradually between the early modern and modern eras. Grounded in the study of newspapers, antiquarianism, public lectures, and literary fiction, this essay proposes a more precise chronology for the decline and subsequent resurgence of magic. It argues that it was only from the 1820s that the middle classes, the media that served them, the police, and certain politicians put popular superstitions under significant duress, and examines the agendas and anxieties underlying this temporary cultural shift away from magic. The later Victorian period saw the emergence of greater tolerance towards witchcraft and ghost beliefs, allowing them to be reinterpreted as picturesque folklore or fitting subjects for ...

Past & Present, 2019

Past & Present, 2020

Fairies, leprechauns, banshees, witches, holy wells and rural remedies. Historic Ireland is famou... more Fairies, leprechauns, banshees, witches, holy wells and rural remedies. Historic Ireland is famous for its superstitions, magic and ‘alternative beliefs’. Yet we should not ignore what was once the most widespread Irish magic of all: cursing. A righteous occult attack, a dark prayer for terrible pains to blight evildoers, cursing was unnervingly common from ancient times until the mid-twentieth century. This article explores its neglected modern history, since the late 1700s, by carefully scrutinizing the Irish style of cursing, relating it to wider social and economic conditions, and making comparisons with maledictions elsewhere. Irish imprecations can be analysed using familiar academic categories such as belief, ritual, symbolism, tradition and discourse. However, by repurposing an older way of thinking about magic, I argue that historic Irish cursing is best understood as an art, because it required knowledge, practice, wit, skill and composure. Intimidating, cathartic and virtuoso: cursing mingled gruesome yet poetic phrases with ostentatious rites, in the name of supernatural justice. It had many applications but was particularly valuable to Ireland’s marginalized people, fighting over food, religion, politics, land and family loyalties. Cursing rapidly faded from the mid-twentieth century and, unlike other forms of occultism, was not revived by the post 1970s ‘New Age’ movement. Its unusual history underlines three wider points: (i) magic can usefully thrive in modern societies, figuring in the most vital areas of life; (ii) different types of magic have distinct chronologies; (iii) the most psychologically powerful forms of magic are subtle arts that deserve our (begrudging) respect.

History Workshop Journal, 2015

It is often assumed that if witchcraft belief lived on in twentieth-century Britain, it did so on... more It is often assumed that if witchcraft belief lived on in twentieth-century Britain, it did so only in the forms of the neo-pagan religion of Wicca and foreign imports. This essay draws on newspapers, folklore reports, religious handbooks and esoteric manuals to cast doubt on that assumption. Those sources reveal that, in fact, a largely indigenous culture of maleficent magic was surprisingly tenacious. Admittedly, belief in such things had become a minority creed and was a good deal less widespread than hitherto. Even so, witchcraft was still occasionally identified as the cause of misfortunes, and was still capable of inspiring powerful emotions. The core idea of maleficent magic, this essay argues, retained some purchase because it was adaptable. Far from being a hangover from the ancient past, it developed novel precepts and practices as the twentieth century unfolded. Pseudo-scientific and psychological terms were incorporated into witchcraft belief’s conceptual vocabulary, rendering it in a more plausible contemporary idiom. Regulatory and legal changes helped to suppress the centuries old cunning-craft; but around the same time new, more religious, and more law-abiding counter-witchcraft therapies emerged to cater to the persistent demand for deliverance from harmful occult forces. Far from dying out, therefore, the notion of maleficent witchcraft was refreshed and renewed.

Flora Thompson's account of the English countryside during the eighteen-eighties and nineties – L... more Flora Thompson's account of the English countryside during the eighteen-eighties and nineties – Lark Rise to Candleford – continues to be an important source for rural history. In that text the protagonist's mother says that witches had 'all died out', and none had been known in her generation. The informants of late Victorian folklorists sometimes made similar remarks. Historians have taken such statements about witchcraft being a thing of the past at face value, inferring from them that plebeian concern about its influence was disappearing during the final decades of the nineteenth century. This article uses evidence from the English south midlands, and insights provided by anthropological studies of sorcery, to suggest an alternative interpretation. Rather than being a sincere statement of belief, assertions that witches had 'all died out' were part of a strategy to avoid speaking about a dreaded subject. Such pains were taken because it was believed that talking about witchcraft was a dangerous activity that would lead to the bewitchment of anyone with a loose tongue.

Journal of British Studies, 2015

Past & Present, 2019

Past & Present, 2020

History Workshop Journal, 2015