a long time
There have been many different witch hunts but the most commonly known one was from about 1480 to 1700.
Many think that the witch hunts of Early Modern Europe were caused by the invention of the printing press. The first texts to be produced were Christian texts, like the Bible, which promoted ideas about Satanic witchcraft practices. Unexplainable events like the Black death could be blamed on witches, causing a mass hysteria.
In an historical perspective, it was the search, or hunting of witches or evidence of witchcraft that in some instances were actually legally sanctioned searches that led to the arrest and trials of many individuals many of whom were executed in horrible ways. Many of these actual witch hunts were fueled by mass hysteria and panic that led to mob lynches. This period of witch hunts spanned the late 1400's up until the 1700's where hundreds of thousands of men and women were executed for witch craft. Before Arthur Miler wrote the play The Crucible, there does not seem to be another historical event ever to using witch hunts as a political or social metaphor. Miller used his own experiences with the House on Un-American Activities Committee, (HUAC), and paralleled it to the Salem witch hunts of 1692. The Crucible was first performed in New York in 1953. Since that day the term witch hunt has come to mean: Searching out and harassing dissenters.
The witch hunts of Europe began in 1563, in Wiesensteig, Germany, with widespread prosecution and the execution of 63 people. Though people were prosecuted for witchcraft throughout ancient and medieval times, the large scale action of finding, prosecuting, and punishing groups of people did not begin until later. Please use the link below for more information.
The fear of communism influencing Americans.
The 1950s was the prime time for McCarthyism. It was considered a witch hunt against communism.
U. S. Senator Joseph McCarthy In the 1950s he was infamous for his "witch hunt" for communists.
McCarthyism occurred because the people were not paying close attention. It arose out of the fear of Communism and paranoia. Before the nation realized it, the nation was embroiled in an unfair witch hunt that destroyed many lives. People were afraid that communists were infiltrating everywhere. Tenuous evidence was used to defame, discredit, and convict several people for ties to Communism.
Salem Witch Trials had to do with a group of girls accusing women for witch craft, while in McCarthyism a man accused people for being communist.
The whole play was a metaphor for mass hysteria and intolerance. Miller wrote it to denounce McCarthyism in the US (anti-Communist witch hunt).
McCarthyism is a mob mentality driven by fear, often a fear of something nonexistent. So the Salem witch trials is a great example of McCarthyism, for the people of colonial Massachusetts were driven by mob mentality and fear.
The McCarthyism of the 1950.
they are during much different time periods. Mccarthyism took place during the 1940s, and the Salem witch trials took place in the 1640's.
is the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence.
Both were caused by a hysteria that made people accuse others of being something feared in that day. In Salem, it was witches. In the senate it was communists.
Joseph McCarthy did not hunt witches, he sought out and persecuted anyone who had communistic values or tendencies, he would oversee hearings and blackballed so many people that this kind of persecution is known as "McCarthyism"