Can anybody recommend a good book on Spiritualism (in history)

Can anybody please recommend a good scholarly book on Spiritualism (esp Ouija boards) in the Gilded Age-Progressive Era?? I don't want some woo-woo book by true-believers, but a good clear eyed look at this topic.

thanks. WF

Mystics and Messiahs by Philip Jenkins was one I enjoyed, much about the Gilded Age and an intelligently done attempt to make a connection between mysticism then and "New Age" thought now.

Not the best-written book in the world -- a whiff of master's thesis, if you know what I mean -- but I never got the impression that he was forcing his facts into a theory. "Clear-eyed" would fit.

Tibetan monks,the(kones-parables) were introspective,the wheel of life fascinating.

is brand new, out this year, and quite good. It focuses on Universalism's role in promoting Spiritualism-- many early Spiritualists came from Universalist backgrounds. I haven't read, but have often seen praise of, Radical Spirits by Ann Braude, which discusses the reformist political agenda of 19th century Spiritualism.

http://www.pararesearchers.org/Psychic/fox/fox.html

The Birth Of Spiritualism – The Story Of The Fox Sisters

By: S. Darroch

In the year 1848 some astounding events took place in Hydesville N.Y. USA that began the modern-day Spiritualist movement. A lessor known fact is that central to these events were three young Upper Canadian ladies who were born in a small farming community; Consecon (near Belleville) Ontario.

The Fox family, which included the three young girls in question Leah (Ann), Margaret, (Maggie), and Catherine (Kate); moved to Hydesville on December 11th 1847. However, it was on March 31st (the day before April Fools) that the girl’s lives would forever be changed by what was considered to be a classic and well-documented example of direct communications with the spirits of the deceased.

It began with a series of strange noises such as knocks and footsteps that could not be accounted for. There were vibrations felt, which affected the family’s chairs and beds as well. Both Mr. And Mrs. Fox were highly disturbed by these occurrences and quickly concluded that a restless ghost must plague their home.

Upon hearing the knocks, the children would try to imitate them by snapping their fingers and clapping their hands. Catherine is reported to have spoken aloud while doing so. “Mr. Splitfoot, do as I do,” she said and the knocks would then respond in kind! These first experiments progressed to the point were the children and their mother would ask questions of this ‘entity’ and devised a series of knocks to signify a yes or no answer. It was by this simple method that the Fox family learned the following about their otherworldly guest: “it was a man, aged thirty-one years, (who) had been murdered in this house and his remains were buried in the cellar.”

....

News of the happenings at the Fox home spread like wild fire. The press loved the story and before long the girls’ seemingly amazing abilities to communicate with the dead were turned into a stage act. The more people that came to witness the communications first hand - the more these events seemed to escalate. Other spirits began communicating with the sisters, and phenomena such as objects moving and the table lifting by supposedly unseen hands were also reported. This further fuelled the rising popularity of Maggie, Kate, and Leah whom were taken under the wing of the world famous PT Barnum. They became the greatest known mediums of their time and Spiritualism was born.

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