WHEN SATAN WENT POP

Kier-La Janisse and Paul Corupe (Eds.) Satanic Panic; Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s. Fab Press, 2016.

In the early 1990s Magonia published a series of articles about the then-current 'Satanic abuse' panic, which involved unproven allegations of mass child abduction, abuse and sacrifice which were being promoted by a number of agencies, and receiving widespread press attention.
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DON'T PANIC!

Robert Bartholomew and Peter Hassall. A Colorful History of Popular Delusions. Prometheus Books, 2015.

Robert Bartholomew, in association with several collaborators, has written a series of books on a number of popular panics, rumours and dubious beliefs, most recently a comprehensive discussion of schoolyard panics. In this present title he and Peter Hassall offer a generalised round-up of irrational mass actions, arranging them in a typology ranging from vague rumour and gossip, to full scale riot.
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REVISITING SRA

Richard Beck. We Believe the Children: A Moral Panic in the 1980s. Public Affairs, 2015.

Back in the 1980s the United States became the centre of a series of social panics about the sexual abuse of toddlers in day care centres, the equivalent of Britain’s day nurseries, nursery schools and child minders. These rapidly escalated into grand conspiracy theories in which dozens of locals were sometimes named as being part of huge rings of child abusers.
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CLASS REACTION

Robert E. Bartholomew with Bob Rickard. Mass Hysteria in Schools: A Worldwide History Since 1566. McFarland, 2014.

It’s not impossible that an episode of mass-hysteria might have sparked a major Middle-Eastern conflict. Fortunately that didn’t happen, but for a while it was a definite threat. In 1983 schoolgirls at a Palestinian school in the Israeli West Bank began to complain of headaches and blurred vision. They said their symptoms began when they started to smell a sulphurous odour which leaked into their classrooms. The school was evacuated.
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DON'T PANIC!

Robert E. Bartholomew and Benjamin Radford. The Martians Have Landed; A History of Media-Driven Panics and Hoaxes. McFarland, 2012.

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Guy P. Harrison. 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True. Prometheus Books, 2012.

Bartholomew and Radford’s book carries on from a number of other titles by Bartholomew, looking at social delusions, as well as another book on panics and hoaxes co-edited with Hilary Evans. This seems to be a rather slighter volume with over thirty topics dealt with mostly in fairly short chapters.
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SALEM - THEN AND NOW

Diane E. Foulds. Death in Salem: The Private Lives Behind the 1692 Witch Hunt. Globe Pequot Press, 2010.

This book by a descendent of one of the accused in the Salem witchcraft trials, differs from the numerous other books on the outbreak in that it concentrates of the personalities involved. These are presented in a series of short biographies, arranged alphabetically, in separate sequences for accusers, victims, clergy, judges, political and social elite.

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NASTY LEGENDS, URBAN RUMOURS

Gillian Bennett. Bodies: Sex, Violence, Disease and Death in Contemporary Legend. University Press of Mississipi, 2005

Though some time has elapsed since this book was published, it has only just come to my attention and is sufficiently important to note. In many respects this book marks a sharp contrast to Gillian Bennett's first book Traditions of Belief. which looked at the ghostlore of middle aged women in Greater Manchester, rather gentle and comforting traditions and experiences. This volume, to the contrary, deals with the dark side of contemporary legend.
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