Credulity

A Cultural History of US Mesmerism

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Reference, History, New Age
Cover of the book Credulity by Emily Ogden, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Emily Ogden ISBN: 9780226532479
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: March 30, 2018
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Emily Ogden
ISBN: 9780226532479
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: March 30, 2018
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

From the 1830s to the Civil War, Americans could be found putting each other into trances for fun and profit in parlors, on stage, and in medical consulting rooms. They were performing mesmerism. Surprisingly central to literature and culture of the period, mesmerism embraced a variety of phenomena, including mind control, spirit travel, and clairvoyance. Although it had been debunked by Benjamin Franklin in late eighteenth-century France, the practice nonetheless enjoyed a decades-long resurgence in the United States. Emily Ogden here offers the first comprehensive account of those boom years.

Credulity tells the fascinating story of mesmerism’s spread from the plantations of the French Antilles to the textile factory cities of 1830s New England. As it proliferated along the Eastern seaboard, this occult movement attracted attention from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s circle and ignited the nineteenth-century equivalent of flame wars in the major newspapers. But mesmerism was not simply the last gasp of magic in modern times. Far from being magicians themselves, mesmerists claimed to provide the first rational means of manipulating the credulous human tendencies that had underwritten past superstitions. Now, rather than propping up the powers of oracles and false gods, these tendencies served modern ends such as labor supervision, education, and mediated communication. Neither an atavistic throwback nor a radical alternative, mesmerism was part and parcel of the modern. Credulity offers us a new way of understanding the place of enchantment in secularizing America.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

From the 1830s to the Civil War, Americans could be found putting each other into trances for fun and profit in parlors, on stage, and in medical consulting rooms. They were performing mesmerism. Surprisingly central to literature and culture of the period, mesmerism embraced a variety of phenomena, including mind control, spirit travel, and clairvoyance. Although it had been debunked by Benjamin Franklin in late eighteenth-century France, the practice nonetheless enjoyed a decades-long resurgence in the United States. Emily Ogden here offers the first comprehensive account of those boom years.

Credulity tells the fascinating story of mesmerism’s spread from the plantations of the French Antilles to the textile factory cities of 1830s New England. As it proliferated along the Eastern seaboard, this occult movement attracted attention from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s circle and ignited the nineteenth-century equivalent of flame wars in the major newspapers. But mesmerism was not simply the last gasp of magic in modern times. Far from being magicians themselves, mesmerists claimed to provide the first rational means of manipulating the credulous human tendencies that had underwritten past superstitions. Now, rather than propping up the powers of oracles and false gods, these tendencies served modern ends such as labor supervision, education, and mediated communication. Neither an atavistic throwback nor a radical alternative, mesmerism was part and parcel of the modern. Credulity offers us a new way of understanding the place of enchantment in secularizing America.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book The Latest Catastrophe by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book Fishing Lessons by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book The Natural Goodness of Man by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book Matatu by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book Boll Weevil Blues by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book New World Gold by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book The Profit of the Earth by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book Marx's Dream by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book Everyday Troubles by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book Environmental Law for Biologists by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book Catching Nature in the Act by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book Hyecho's Journey by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book The Kindly Ones by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book Cruel Attachments by Emily Ogden
Cover of the book Behemoth or The Long Parliament by Emily Ogden
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy