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A fascinating story of spirits and conjurors, skeptics and converts in the second half of nineteenth century America viewed through the lives of Kate and Maggie Fox, the sisters whose purported communication with the dead gave rise to the Spiritualism movement – and whose recanting forty years later is still shrouded in mystery.In March of 1848, Kate and Maggie Fox – sisters aged 11 and 14 – anxiously reported to a neighbor that they had been hearing strange, unidentified sounds in their house. From a sequence of knocks and rattles translated by the young girls as a "voice from beyond," the Modern Spiritualism movement was born.Talking to the Dead follows the fascinating story of the two girls who were catapulted into an odd limelight after communicating with spirits that March night. Within a few years, tens of thousands of Americans were flocking to seances. An international movement followed. Yet thirty years after those first knocks, the sisters shocked the country by denying they had ever contacted spirits. Shortly after, the sisters once again changed their story and reaffirmed their belief in the spirit world. Weisberg traces not only the lives of the Fox sisters and their family (including their mysterious Svengali–like sister Leah) but also the social, religious, economic and political climates that provided the breeding ground for the movement. While this is a thorough, compelling overview of a potent time in US history, it is also an incredible ghost story.An entertaining read – a story of spirits and conjurors, skeptics and converts – Talking to the Dead is full of emotion and surprise. Yet it will also provoke questions that were being asked in the 19th century, and are still being asked today – how do we know what we know, and how secure are we in our knowledge?
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Biography, Biography & Autobiography, History, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Spiritualism, Spiritualists, United States - 19th Century, Parapsychology, Biography / Autobiography, Biography/Autobiography, Spiritualism - General, New Age, Biography & Autobiography / General, General, Fox, Margaret, 1833-1893, Jencken, Catherine Fox, 1836-1892, New York Times reviewed, Fox, margaret, 1836-1893Places
United StatesTimes
19th centuryShowing 10 featured editions. View all 10 editions?
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Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism
March 29, 2005, HarperOne
Paperback
in English
006075060X 9780060750602
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Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism
March 29, 2005, HarperOne
in English
006075060X 9780060750602
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Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism
2004, HarperCollins Publishers
in English
0060728647 9780060728649
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Talking to the dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the rise of spiritualism
2004, HarperSanFrancisco
in English
- 1st ed.
0060566671 9780060566678
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Book Details
First Sentence
"ON LATE MARCH 1848 two young sisters excitedly waylaid a neighbor, eager to tell her about the strange sounds they had been hearing at home nearly every night around bedtime."
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- Created April 29, 2008
- 7 revisions
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November 2, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
August 4, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 16, 2010 | Edited by bgimpertBot | Added goodreads ID. |
April 29, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |