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9781682833179 Academic Inspection Copy

Lone Star Seance

A History of Texas Spiritualism
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In the mid-nineteenth century, a strange new fire swept across the American landscape. It was Spiritualism: the radical belief that the living could-and should-commune with the dead. While historians have long looked to the North for the heart of this movement, John Benedict Buescher reveals a darker, wilder, and distinctly Texan story. Lone Star Seance is a journey into the borderlands of belief, where parlor tables rattled in the same rooms in which pistols were drawn. From the invisible counsel pursued by Sam Houston and Anson Jones to the mystical visions of Quanah Parker and Francisco Madero, Buescher brings the shadows of the Lone Star State into the light. It is a saga of independent minds rejecting religious dogma to become their own prophets and the tragicomic backlash that followed. Part occult history, part frontier Western, this is the story of a "cultural infection" that became a Texas obsession. Forget the Alamo for a moment-and remember the seance.
John Benedict Buescher is an academic scholar of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American religious history. Although not a Spiritualist, he is currently a co-director of the International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals (IAPSOP). He moved from Virginia to Texas in 2018 and has since focused his research on offbeat elements of Texas history, including the border radio stations along the Rio Grande, detailed in his 2021 book Radio Psychics. He has taught at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and has worked at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Voice of America.
Illustrations Preface Chapter 1: The Science of the Disembodied Chapter 2: The True Evangelist Chapter 3: Annihilate Space and Time Chapter 4: Plagiarizing Phantasms Chapter 5: A Vision of Utopia Chapter 6: Spirits in Bondage Chapter 7: Bam & Boozle Chapter 8: Spiritual Carpetbaggers Chapter 9: Mission Territory Chapter 10: Rallying Forces Chapter 11: Spirits in Convention Chapter 12: Spooked Chapter 13: New Movement Chapter 14: An Angel Who Fell Chapter 15: Guns and Ghosts Chapter 16: Wings Over Waco Chapter 17: Camp Meetings Chapter 18: Great Caesar's Ghost Chapter 19: The Uncertain Road to Port Arthur Chapter 20: Oh Texas, Land of Promise! Chapter 21: Spirits by Any Other Name Chapter 22: After the Flood Chapter 23: Controversies in Cowtown Chapter 24: We Don't Talk About Kardec Chapter 25: Two Cultures Chapter 26: Seating Sections for White People Chapter 27: Mystery Repeats Itself Chapter 28: A Powwow of Spirits Chapter 29: The Religion of the Future Acknowledgments Notes For Further Reading Index
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