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Ogden, Emily,

Credulity : a cultural history of US mesmerism / Emily Ogden. - 1 online resource - Class 200: new studies in religion . - Class 200, new studies in religion. .

Includes bibliographical references.

Out on credulity! An introduction -- It does not exist: animal magnetism before it was true -- Beyond radical enchantment: mesmerizing laborers in the Americas -- In imagination: traveling clairvoyance and the suspension of disbelief -- Out of character: phrenomesmerism and the secular agent -- The spirit of Benjamin Franklin -- Coda: bagging the idol.

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 a comprehensive account of those boom years.

ISBN: 9780226532479 022653247X

Standard No.: 40028060289

Source: org.bibliovault.9780226532479 University of Chicago Press

Nat. Bib. No.: GBB861228 bnb

Nat. Bib. Agency Control No.: 018814028 Uk

Subjects--Chronological Terms:
1800-1899

Subjects--Topical Terms:
Mesmerism--History--United States--19th century.
Credulity--History--United States--19th century.
Mesm�erisme--Histoire--�Etats-Unis--19e si�ecle.
Cr�edulit�e--Histoire--�Etats-Unis--19e si�ecle.
PSYCHOLOGY--General.
Credulity
Mesmerism

Subjects--Geographic Terms:
United States
United States.

Index Terms--Genre/Form:
History

LC Class. No.: BF1125 / .O33 2018eb

Dewey Class. No.: 154.70973/09034