Crucible

<p>Arthur Miller's classic parable of mass hysteria draws a chilling parallel between the Salem witch-hunt of 1692 - 'one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history' - and the American anti-communist purges led by Senator McCarthy in the 1950s. The story of how the small community of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition paranoia and malice culminating in a violent climax is a savage attack on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations. <p/>A depiction of innocent men and women destroyed by malicious rumour <i>The Crucible </i>is also a powerful indictment of McCarthyism and the 'frontier mentality' of Cold War America.</p>