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. If you enjoyed The Crucible, you might like Miller’s Death of a Salesman, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.