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Product Identifiers

PublisherHarperCollins

ISBN-100060566671

ISBN-139780060566678

eBay Product ID (ePID)5933000

Product Key Features

Book TitleTalking to the Dead : Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism

Number of Pages336 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2004

TopicWomen, United States / 19th Century, General, Spiritualism, History

IllustratorYes

GenreReligion, Body, Mind & Spirit, Biography & Autobiography, History

AuthorBarbara Weisberg

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.1 in

Item Weight20.4 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2004-300285

Dewey Edition22

ReviewsWeisberg writes with clarity and intelligence...This book tells us a lot about our own relationship with death and dying., Weisberg illustrates that this seemingly simple account of fakery and gullibility is in fact mesmerizingly complex . . . ., Weisberg goes beyond stereotypes.A revealing look at the history of spiritualism and its place in nineteenth-century culture.|9780060566678|, [A] well-researched...insightful look at the social climate of the 19th century....makes for fascinating reading., Barbara Weisberg raises the specter of two winsome adolescent sisters who convinced America they were Talking to the Dead., .vividly brings alive one of America's most fascinating historical eras. This book is a fine read and an excellent reference., [P]rovides admirable social context for the girls' misadventures as mediums..also conveys a vivid sense of their personalities., A fascinating exploration of the mysteries of mortality and faith..... A most readable and instructive story.

Dewey Decimal133.9/1/0922 B

SynopsisMarch 1848. Mysterious knocks are heard in a little house in rural New York, throwing the community into turmoil. Are the children who live there -- Kate and Maggie Fox, sisters aged eleven and fourteen -- making the raps to trick their parents? Or are the girls mediums for otherworldly messages? From a battery of strange sounds and the excitement they create, modern Spiritualism is born. Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism follows the remarkable story of the Fox sisters, who were catapulted to fame after word spread that they communicated with spirits. Within a few years, tens of thousands of Americans were flocking to seances. An international movement developed. Yet forty years after those first knocks, the sisters shocked the country by denying that they had ever been in contact with the dead. Shortly after, in another stunning reversal, they changed their story again and reaffirmed their faith in the spirit world. Were the Fox sisters con artists who had taken a childhood prank too far? Or were they really in touch with "voices from beyond"? In this riveting biography, Barbara Weisberg traces not only the lives of Kate, Maggie, and their family -- including the girls' shrewd and charismatic sister, Leah -- but also the social, religious, economic, and political forces that helped shape the Spiritualist movement. A vivid, compelling overview of a remarkable period in U.S. history, Talking to the Dead provokes questions about belief systems, the power of celebrity, the wish to reconcile faith and science, and the timeless quest for knowledge about life after death.

LC Classification NumberBF1283.F7W45 2004