John Putnam Demos is an American

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. He has written two books that discuss witch hunts and has discovered that one of his ancestors was John Putnam Senior, a member of the Putnam family that was prominent in the

Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Not everyone wh ...

. Demos was awarded the prestigious

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, d ...

for his book ''Entertaining Satan''. He was awarded the 1995

Francis Parkman Prize The Francis Parkman Prize, named after Francis Parkman, is awarded by the Society of American Historians for the best book in American history each year. Its purpose is to promote literary distinction in historical writing. The Society of Ameri ...

for his book ''The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story From Early America''. He retired in December 2008 as the Samuel Knight Professor of History at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. Demos lives in

Tyringham, Massachusetts Tyringham is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 427 at the 2020 census. History Founded as Housatonic Township Number 1, th ...

. He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Works

''Entertaining Satan - Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England''
Oxford University Press, London, 1982 * ''A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony'' * ''The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America'' (Winner of the Ray Allen Billington Award) * ''The Enemy Within: 2,000 Years of Witch-Hunting in the Western World'' * Editor, ''Remarkable Providences''
''Past, Present, and Personal: The Family and the Life Course in American History''
* ''The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic''

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* 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers American people of Greek descent History of the Thirteen Colonies Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Yale University faculty People from Tyringham, Massachusetts Harvard University alumni Historians from Massachusetts Bancroft Prize winners 21st-century American male writers {{US-historian-stub

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