Orwell's 1984: the future is here: George Orwell believed the stark totalitarian society he described in 1984 actually would arrive by the year 2000, thanks to the slow, sinister influence of socialism

Suppose someone 50 years ago had drawn a picture of the future that looked something like this: You live under the governance of an international alliance composed of a North American Union, China and Europe. Major powers are waging permanent low-level urban warfare. Rocket bombs soar over cities to crash into buildings. There are conflicts involving armies, but they are limited to border regions. Large banners fly downtown to celebrate victory over the nation's enemies.

A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials

In searching for the truth about the devils of Salem we shall investigate the demons in all human societies and all human souls," writes Frances Hill in A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trails (Doubleday, $23.95, 269 pp). It is a lofty ambition, aiming to extend spiritual knowledge into historical writing, and Hill pursues it without pause.
Hill holds Samuel Parris, pastor of Salem Village in 1692, most responsible for the hysteria that sent 19 men and women to the hanging tree and caused several other deaths. Parris used Puritanism's "terrifying absolutes of good and evil" to reduce life in his parsonage to a daily trauma of fear, guilt and suspicion.