The Encyclopedia Of Witchcraft & Demonology by Rossell Hope Robbins

[Marukai]

I just wanted to get some insight on this book. It is no longer in print, but I continuously come across this particular book in the form of citations. From my understanding the book contains many of persecution trials and hysteria that surrounded Witches. http://www.amazon.com/The-Encyclopedia-Of-Witchcraft-Demonology/dp/0517362457/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383381355&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Encyclopedia+Of+Witchcraft+%26+Demonology



I can only obtain a copy via Ebay or Amazon used books since this texts is no longer in print. Should I get this book, or is it outdated rubbish; hence the reason it's no longer in print?

[Jenett]

I can only obtain a copy via Ebay or Amazon used books since this texts is no longer in print. Should I get this book, or is it outdated rubbish; hence the reason it's no longer in print?

 
This review (on the very same Amazon page you link) points out the issues:

1) The book was written in 1959, this is a rerelease. *Anything* in this field that is pre-1970s likely has some extremely problematic scholarship (and really, probably pre-2000, unless you're dealing with peer-reviewed academic work in reputable academic journals/academic publishers.

2) It relies on documents we now know were forged, exaggerated, etc. (There is an excellent article from Jenny Gibbons talking about the specifics - the easiest link I can find at the moment is this one.)

That means you can't trust its conclusions. If you are looking for a place to get started looking at specific sources, and are up for doing your own analysis, and found it cheap in a used bookstore, that might be one thing - but it should absolutely not be read or relied on without  checking each and every bit of interpretation, translation, etc. against modern academic sources.

3) There's better stuff out there now.

I don't ever fully trust Amazon reviews, but in this case, they give an attentive reader more than enough to go poke at the issues further.

[RandallS]

I can only obtain a copy via Ebay or Amazon used books since this texts is no longer in print. Should I get this book, or is it outdated rubbish; hence the reason it's no longer in print?

It was outdated rubbish when I picked up a copy in the 1970s. I was suspicious about some of it then, but I should have been suspicious about much more of it. If you find a copy for a buck or two, it might be worth it -- but only as an example of what used to be believed by many (and had some influence on early Neo-Paganism).