How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing Women

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Did the book meet your expectations or provide the information you hoped to learn about the Scottish witch trials? Explain.

2. How did you feel about the authors’ approach to the subject and the tone and angle that their writing adopted?

3. What was the most shocking or surprising fact that you learned from this book?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Did the book effectively develop your understanding of how it felt to be someone persecuted as a witch during the Scottish Reformation, or beyond? In what ways have your understanding and feelings changed, or not changed, on the subject?

2. What would you do if you or someone you love was falsely accused of a crime? Alternatively, have you ever heard of a recent miscarriage of justice in your own society that disturbed or moved you in any way?

3. Reflect upon a time you visited a historical site or museum that really impacted you in some way. What was the place, and what made the visit special for you?

4. If you were to advocate for a vulnerable population, who would it be and why? What can be done to help this group of people?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. To what extent were the witch trials primarily a feminist issue? How can studying historical events like the witch trials contribute to our understanding of women’s rights and the issue of misogyny? 

2. Compare the issues of the Scottish witch trials to a modern-day example of a powerful entity (government, religion, or otherwise) exploiting their power to attack a vulnerable population. What are some of the similarities and differences between this modern persecution and the historical one?

3. How can people distinguish between what is true or not in today’s world of artificial intelligence, social media, and extremist ideologies?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. How does the book act as a philosophical commentary on the nature of truth and how it is constructed in societies?

2. How do the authors explore themes of remembering and forgetting? What are the social, political, and/or moral stakes in something/someone being memorialized or overlooked?

3. How do the authors transform the definition of witchcraft and witch trials into something completely apart from the supernatural?

4. Select one of the historical individuals spotlighted in the text. How is he/she depicted? What is her/his wider significance to the authors’ study, and what do his/her experiences illustrate about the witch hunts?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Browse through traditional folk music on YouTube or Spotify and share a song that represents the cultural or environmental setting of the Scottish witch trials.

2. Choose one of the portraits of women accused of witchcraft and create a visual portrait or poem that represents how that woman’s story impacted your life.

3. If you could add another chapter to the book, what would it be about and why would you include it? How would it enhance the arguments and evidence already presented?

4. Imagine you were hired to build and fill a Scottish museum for the witchcraft trials. What would you hope to include in that museum, what kind of architectural setting would you hope to use, and how would you aim to inspire and educate the public?

5. If you were going to teach the witch trials to younger people, how would you approach this difficult topic and what would you expect to be the outcome of sharing this information with younger generations?