Michelle Brock to Discuss Her Book About the Devil in Post-Reformation Scotland

By Julie Cline
January 24, 2017

“‘Satan and the Scots’ is the first history of the devil in Scotland. It explores what Scots from across the social spectrum believed about Satan and asks how such beliefs informed daily life from the Reformation through the early eighteenth century.”

The Anne and Edgar Basse Jr. Author Talk Series, presented by the Leyburn Library at Washington and Lee University, presents Michelle D. Brock, assistant professor of history at W&L on Feb. 15 at 4:30 p.m. in the Book Nook on the main floor of the library.

She will be discussing her first book, “Satan and the Scots: The Devil in Post-Reformation Scotland, c. 1560-1700.” The talk is free and open to the public and refreshments will be provided.

“‘Satan and the Scots’ is the first history of the devil in Scotland. It explores what Scots from across the social spectrum believed about Satan and asks how such beliefs informed daily life from the Reformation through the early eighteenth century,” said Brock.

“By recreating the role of the devil in the mental worlds of the Scottish people, this study suggests that post-Reformation beliefs about Satan profoundly influenced lived experiences and identities in Scotland through the creation of a shared cultural conversation about evil and human nature,” she continued.

Brock’s work includes “Internalizing the Demonic: Satan and the Self in Early Modern Scottish Piety” (2015), in The Journal of British Studies; “Experiencing Satan in Early Modern Scotland” (2011), in Critical Survey; and “Why we Blame the Victim, and Why We Have to Stop: A Historian’s Perspective” (2014), in The University of Edinburgh’s Global Justice Academy Blog, published online.

She is a participant in the American Historical Association Tuning Project; editor of Britain and the World Book Series with Palgrave MacMillan; and assistant general editor of the British Scholar Society.