This work is the first full-scale scholarly study of the origins of modern Neo-paganism/pagan witchcraft. The book covers the development of Wicca and its related beliefs from its development in England while debunking a lot of the much published pseudo-history of the beliefs. Included in his extensive research including village cunning folk, Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons, and rural secret societies. Hutton examines the shoddy and in some cases non-existent research done by prominent authors on the subject like Robert Graves (The White Goddess) and Margaret Murray (The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology). He also gives detailed biographical studies of those who actually developed Wicca as it is known today: Gerald Gardner, Dion Fortune, Dorothy Clutterbuck (who was a real person, not someone made up by Gardner although whether or not he learned witchcraft from her is doubtful), Patricia Crowther, Alex Sanders, and others. This is a dense read and one I probably wouldn't have finished had it not been a "homework" assignment.
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