Talking to the Dead

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 Best Read Talking to the Dead [ Author ] Barbara Weisberg [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr This is an excellent biography of the Fox sisters, Maggie and Kate, as well as the Spiritualist movement they headlined in the United States in the middle of the 19th century In addition to providing the story of the girls arrival on what would be their stage, the author uses a wide variety of sources to follow their lives into their active teen age years and on into theircontroversial adult years Along the way, we meet the other members of their family, including fellow medium Leah, va This is an excellent biography of the Fox sisters, Maggie and Kate, as well as the Spiritualist movement they headlined in the United States in the middle of the 19th century In addition to providing the story of the girls arrival on what would be their stage, the author uses a wide variety of sources to follow their lives into their active teen age years and on into theircontroversial adult years Along the way, we meet the other members of their family, including fellow medium Leah, various supporters around the United States who both came to see them in New York and invited them into their own homes and cities We meet those who doubted or despised their beliefs and techniques and we are left with many answers and stillquestions.One point the author makes...This is a marvelous example of what good history can do putting bits of things one might or might not already know into a useful context.I ve known about the Fox sisters and the rapping they introduced from whence seances and Spiritualism both developed I knew they were young, that the rapping sound started at night while they were in bed, and that the sounds were eventually credited to knuckle popping of the toes Now because of when I first read about them, I pictured them as Laura and Mar This is a marvelous example of what good history can do putting bits of things one might or might not already know into a useful context.I ve known about the Fox sisters and the rapping they introduced from whence seances and Spiritualism both developed I knew they were young, that the rapping sound started at night while they were in bed, and that the sounds were eventually credited to knuckle popping of the toes Now because of when I first read about them, I pictured them as Laura and Mary Ingalls What I didn t know is everything else in this book the background of the family, how an older s...This book was at intervals thought provoking, and dull The rise of Spiritualism is a fascinating topic, as it seems like it was cushioned between very structured Calvinist dogma and then the evangelical outbreak Humanity was standing on the precipice of modernity, and when we looked to the future we could hardly tell the difference between science and magic Both Tesla and Edison tried to create scientific means of contact the dead, believing that piercing the veil could hardly be different This book was at intervals thought provoking, and dull The rise of Spiritualism is a fascinating topic, as it seems like it was cushioned between very structured Calvinist dogma and then the evangelical outbreak Humanity was standing on the precipice of modernity, and when we looked to the fu...ENTERTAINING AND INFORMATIVE In western New York, the time was always right for a new philosophy, theory, controversy, or utopia page 45Of course, it s bunkum But, it s engagingly interesting, informative, table knocking, spirit rapping, toe popping, entertaining bunkum appropriate to the Halloween season Coming from a most interesting time and place close to the peak of the Second Great Awakening, in the heart of the Burned over District of western New York state, and with an exciting cast ENTERTAINING AND INFORMATIVE In western New York, the time was always right for a new philosophy, theory, controversy, or utopia page 45Of course, it s bunkum But, it s engagingly interesting, informative, table knocking, spirit rapping, toe popping, entertaining bunkum appropriate to the Halloween season Coming from a most interesting time and place close to the peak of the Second Great Awakening, in the heart of the Burned over District of western New York state, and with an exciting cast of ambience characters such as Frederick Douglass, P T Barnum, Jenny Lind, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Horace Greeley, to name a few TALKING TO THE DEAD Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism, by Barbara Weisberg, documents the birth of ...Interesting subject, utterly dull execution I was so excited to read this and it took me over two months to slog through it Far too many stories about people the Fox sisters encountered that didn t serve to enhance the narr...Whether they were real or a hoax, this book is a fascinating read Spiritualism was popular during the 1800s and many famous people such as Mary Lincoln followed the movement I was amazed to read how many followers they had.I m not giving this a star rating because I only got about 1 3 of the way through It s not that it s not a good book but that it wasn t quite what I was looking for I picked up the book initially to learn about spiritualism because I have a character in a historical mystery novel that is a sort of spiritualist so I wanted to learn a bit about spiritualism in America But from my reading of the book so far, it was mainly focused on the experiences of Kate and Maggie Fox which didn t quite fit w I m not giving this a star rating because I only got about 1 3 of the way through I...Still probably the best biography of the Fox Sisters out there This scrupulously researched book presents a sceptical but deeply sympathetic view of these two controversial figures While the girls have been variously painted as stone cold frauds by some and martyrs to a cause by others, Weisberg s book is refreshing in that it treats its subjects simply as people.This book paints a vivid picture of the early spiritualist movement, with its roots in the women s movement, abolition and non confo Still probably the best biography of the Fox Sisters out there This scrupulously researched book presents a sceptical but deeply sympathetic view of these two controversial figures While the girls have been variously painted as stone cold frauds by some and martyrs to a cause by others, Weisberg s book is refreshing in that it treats its subjects simply as people.This book paints a vivid picture of the early spiritualist movement, with its roots in the women s movement, abolition and non conformist reli...I don t consider myself a hard and fast sceptic, but that s the role I played reading this In the afterword, author Barbara Weisberg admits she wants spirit communication to exist, and the book shows it Hoping to leave room for the possibility Kate and Maggie Fox were indeed mediums, Weisberg performed mental acrobatics that instead set off my bullshit detector Perhaps the most frustrating example I found is in the final chapter, which mentions a 1904 newspaper article about physical evidence I don t consider myself a hard and fast sceptic, but that s the role I played reading this In the afterword, author Barbara Weisberg admits she wants spirit communication to exist, and the book shows it Hoping to leave room for the possibility Kate and Maggie Fox were indeed mediums, Weisberg performed mental acrobatics that instead set off my bull...An interesting look at the Spiritualist movement during the 19th century The sisters, Leah, Maggie, and Kate, remain mysterious to me as they both validated their powers of mediumship for ages as doctors and others tried to debunk them, but also recanted their powers only to claim them again The story of their life struck me as a sad one I have t...

• English
• 25 December 2017
Barbara Weisberg
• Paperback
• 324 pages
• 0965902560
• Barbara Weisberg
• Talking to the Dead