"Calling on an impressive range of sources including weekly journals, essays, letters, and various organizational reports, Lause clearly demonstrates the wealth of evidence supporting the influence of spiritualists… Recommended."--<i>Choice</i><br />  <br /> "Opens a door between works that consider spiritualism as a purely religious phenomenon and works that deal with the history of the reform movements of the time in purely political or economic terms. By developing this thesis, Lause shows how limited previous treatments of progressive reform have been."--John B. Buescher, author of The Remarkable Life of John Murray Spear: Agitator for the Spirit Land<br /> "Historians of religion, culture, and politics will all learn something new. . . . <i>Free Spirits</i> is filled with fascinating material."--<i>The Journal of Southern History</i><br />  <br /> "There is virtually no scholarship on the influence and counter-influence of spiritualism and politics. The fresh insights on Lincoln, who is generally protected from any real alliance with spiritualism by virtue of his 'difficult' wife, is a great contribution, as are the messages from the southern dead."--Cathy Gutierrez, author of <i>Plato's Ghost: Spiritualism in the American Renaissance</i><br />

Often dismissed as a nineteenth-century curiosity, spiritualism influenced the radical social and political movements of its time. Believers filled the ranks of the Free Democrats, agitated for land and monetary reform, fought for abolition, and held egalitarian leanings that found powerful expression in campaigns for gender and racial equality. In Free Spirits , Mark A. Lause considers spiritualism as a political and cultural force in Civil War-era America. Lause reveals the scope, spread, and influence of the movement, both in its links to reformist causes and its ability to amplify previously marginalized voices. Rooting spiritualism's appeal in the crises of the time, Lause considers how spiritualist influences, through the distillation of the war, forced reassessments of the question of Radical Republicanism and radicalism in general. He also delves into unexplored areas such as the movement's role in Lincoln's reelection and the relationship between Native Americans and spiritualists.
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CoverTitleContentsAcknowledgmentsPrologueAmerica's 1848: Republican Spirits in RevoltPart I. The Soul of a Republic1. Free Democrats to the Republicans: Radical Spiritualists and the Antislavery Insurgency2. The Mystical Union: The Republican Medium of the National Destiny3. Father Abraham: President Lincoln and the Spirit of the UnionPart II. The Promise of a Republic4. Liberty: Toward a Rational Spirit of Freedom5. Equality: Race and Gender6. Fraternity: Reconstructing a Movement and the NationEpilogueLong Shadows: The Legacies of Civil War–Era SpiritualismNotesIndex
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780252040306
Publisert
2016-06-30
Utgiver
University of Illinois Press
Vekt
513 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Dybde
23 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
248

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Mark A. Lause is a professor of American history at the University of Cincinnati and the author of numerous books, including Free Labor: The Civil War and the Making of an American Working Class; A Secret Society History of the Civil War; Price's Lost Campaign: The 1864 Invasion of Missouri; and Race and Radicalism in the Union Army.