How is a sense of place created, imagined, and reinterpreted over time? That is the intriguing question addressed in this comprehensive look at the 400-year, multi-layered history of Salem, Massachusetts, and the experiences of fourteen generations of people who lived in a place forever enshrined, indeed mythologized, in the public imagination by the horrific witch trials and executions of 1692 and 1693.

By exploring the rich textures of Salem as a local, national, and global entity from its settling in 1626 to the present, this highly original, cohesive, and teachable collection illuminates how people influence a place and how a place influences its people.