Ghosts: A Social History

Editor: Owen Davies


5 Volume Set: 1440pp: 2010
978 1 85196 989 0: 234x156mm: £450.00/$795.00

Despite the scientific and intellectual advances of the past five hundred years, populist belief in the supernatural, as evidenced by media investigations into the paranormal, continues to be culturally and socially relevant. Throughout history, ghost beliefs have been a source of literary inspiration and learned investigation. They prompted public panics and scandals, and have been manipulated for political and religious purposes. This five-volume reset edition draws together representative and defining printed sources to reveal changing perceptions of ghosts at different social levels from the Reformation through to the twentieth century in Britain and America.

In the face of growing scholarly interest in the history of ghosts, this groundbreaking edition is the first documentary survey of the field from the early modern era through to the industrial age. Sources have been chosen to present a clear chronological story of continuities and changes in the social and intellectual relevance of ghosts. They focus on the key published debates that emerged in each century, and illustrate the full range of literary formats that reported or discussed ghosts. American material is included in the final two volumes to reflect the US birth of nineteenth-century spiritualism.

The edition benefits from full scholarly apparatus, including a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index in the final volume. The set is broadly interdisciplinary and will appeal to those researching Social and Cultural History, History of Science, History of Religion, Literature and History of the Supernatural, as well as Early-Modern, Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century History.

  • Includes rare sources not available on ECCO, EEBO or Google Books
  • Takes a chronologically broad view of the history of the supernatural, from the Reformation to the twentieth century
  • New editorial material includes a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index in the final volume

Sample pages

Contents

Volume 1: 1660–1762: The Enlightenment?

The Philosophical Debate
Thomas Bromhall, A Treatise of Spectres (1658); John Heydon, The Harmony of the World (1662); Joseph Glanvill, Sadducismus Triumphatus (1681); A Narrative of the Demon of Spraiton (1683); Richard Bovet, Pandæmonium, or the Devil’s Cloyster (1684); Richard Baxter, The Certainty of the World of Spirits (1691)
Popular Literature
The Suffolk Miracle (1670); A True Relation of the Horrid Ghost of a Woman (1673); A Full and True Account of a Strange Apparition (1685); News from Basing-Stoak ([c1685]); The Female Ghost (1705)
Satire and Politics
A Dialogue betwixt the Ghosts of Charls the I, late King of England, and Oliver the late Usurping Protector (1659); A new apparition of S. Edmund-bery Godfrey’s Ghost to the E. of D— in the Tower (1681); The Ghost of Tom Ross To his Pupil the D. of Monmouth (1683); Patrick Swift-Sight, A Strange, Unprecedented and Unheard-Of Apparition (1714)
End of the Age of Miracles?
J Roe, The Certainty of a Future State (1698); [William Assheton], The Possibility of Apparitions (1706); Exact Narrative of Many Surprizing Matters of Fact Uncontestably Wrought by an Evil Spirit or Spirits (1709); The Wonderful Strange Apparition and Ghost of Edward Ashley (1712); Thomas Burnet, A Treatise concerning the State of Departed Souls (1733); Life after Death, or The History of Apparitions, Ghosts, Spirits or Spectres (1758)

Volume 2: 1762–1820: Cock Lane, Common Sense and Morality

Cock Lane
Oliver Goldsmith, The Mystery Revealed (1762); A Seasonable Present To the Renowned Society of Ghost-Mongers (1762); Cock Lane, Humbug [nd]; An Authentic, Candid and Circumstantial Narrative of the Astonishing Transactions at Stockwell (1772)
Education
[Mary Weightman], The Friendly Monitor (1791); Richard Johnson, False Alarms, or, The Mischievous Doctrine of Ghosts and Apparitions (1802); James Plumptre, The Truth of the Popular Notion of Apparitions, or Ghosts, Considered by the Light of Scripture (1818)
The Sampford Ghost
C C Colton, Sampford Ghost, A Plain and Authentic Narrative (1810); C C Colton, Sampford Ghost, Stubborn Facts against Vague Assertions (1810); John Marriott, Sampford Ghost!!! A Full Account of the Conspiracy (1810); [John Wolcot], The Sampford Ghost, A Poem ([c1810]); The Sampford Ghost Surpassed ([c1810])
Cautionary: Popular Morality and Fraud
The Ghost (1764); The Portsmouth Ghost ([c1810]); A Full Account of a Secret Murder: Brought to Light by the Wonderful Means of a Divine Providence ([1811)];The Power of Conscience Exemplified in the Genuine and Extraordinary Confession of Thomas Bedworth (1815); The Morristown Ghost, or, 'Yankee Trick' ([c1815]); Patrick Reardon and James Chorley, An Authentic Narrative of the Mysterious Warnings (1821)

Volume 3: 1820–1848: Religion vs Science – The Debate Updated

Religious Inspiration: Prophets and Spirits
Robert Young, The Entranced Female (1841); William Reid Clanny, A Faithful Record of the Miraculous Case of Mary Jobson (1841); Moses Aaron Richardson, Authentic Account of a Visit to the Haunted House at Willington (1842); Vetus, Wesley’s Ghost (1846); Sabin Hough, Remarks on the 'Revelations' of A J Davis ([c1848])
Explaining away Ghosts
John Stock, A lecture on the Philosophy of Spectral Appearances ([1839]); R Buchanan, The Origin and Nature of Ghosts, Demons and Spectral Illusions Generally (1840); Robert Paterson, An account of Several Cases of Spectral Illusions ([c1843]); James Braid, The Power of the Mind over the Body (1846)

Volume 4: 1848–1914: Spiritualism and Hauntings

Advent
D M Dewy, History of the Strange Sounds or Rappings (1850); E Gillson, Table-Talking: Disclosures of Satanic Wonders and Prophetic Signs (1853); John Prichard, A Few Sober Words of Table-Talk about Table-Spirits (1853); John Worth Edmonds, An Appeal to the Public on Spiritualism (1858)
Further Developments
William H Mumler, Personal Experiences of William H Mumler in Spirit-Photography (1875); William H Harrison, The Moral Status of Certain Psychical and Spiritualistic Organisations (1884); William Stainton Moses, Spiritualism at Home and Abroad (1885); Philosophus, Ghosts and their Modern Worshippers (1892); Elizabeth d'Esperance, What I Know of Materialisations (1904)
Reporting Ghosts
Henry Johnson Brent, Was it a Ghost? The Murders in Bussey’s Wood (1868); Arthur James Melhuish, A Ghostly Annual (1883); H Lewis Scaife, A True Ghost Story, or, Three Nights in a Haunted House (1895); A Selection of Newspaper Reports of Supposed Hauntings: ‘A Ghost Story’, Leeds Mercury (1812), ‘The Juvenal-Street Ghost’, Liverpool Mercury (1841), ‘The Orton Ghost’, Preston Chronicle (1849); ‘A "Ghost" at Chelsea’ and ‘Further Particulars of the "Ghost"’, Reynolds’s Newspaper (1853), ‘The Handborough Ghost’, Jackson’s Oxford Journal (1857), ‘A Murder Revealed by a Ghost, at Kendal’, Birmingham Daily Post (1861), 'The "Haunted" Houses in the Borough', Illustrated Police News (1871)

Volume 5: Spiritualism during the Great War

From the Battlefields
N H Barragar, War Lectures from the Spirit World by General Grant and Others (1918); [Harriet McCrory Grove and Mattie Hunt] (eds), A Soldier Gone West (1919)
The Last Flourish of the Great Debate
Fielding Fielding Ould, Is Spiritualism of the Devil? (1917); E A G and P W S S, True and False Spiritualism (1918); Frederick B Meyer, The Modern Craze of Spiritualism (1919); On the Side of the Angels, The Law v. Spiritualism ([1919])

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