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Ghosts of Futures Past: Spiritualism and the Cultural Politics of Nineteenth-Century America
Ghosts of Futures Past guides readers through the uncanny world of nineteenth-century American spiritualism. More than an occult parlor game, this was a new religion, which channeled the voices of the dead, linked present with past, and conjured new worldly and otherworldly futures. Tracing the persistence of magic in an emergent culture of secularism, Molly McGarry brings a once marginalized practice to the center of American cultural history. Spiritualism provided an alchemical combination of science and magic that called into question the very categories of male and female, material and immaterial, self and other, living and dead. Dissolving the boundaries between them opened Spiritualist practitioners to other voices and, in turn, allowed them to imagine new social worlds and forge diverse political affinities.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
6 people are currently reading
337 people want to read
About the author
Molly McGarry
4 booksMolly McGarry received her B.A. from Cornell University and Ph.D. from New York University. She has worked as a curator and consultant for The New York Public Library, The Jewish Museum, The Museum of the Chinese in the Americas, and the American Social History Project. Her exhibits have received curatorial awards from the American Association of Museums, the American Society for State and Local History, the International Association of Art Critics, and the Society of American Archivists.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 5, 2021
more even handed treatment of the subject than the doyle, though a bit less entertaining
March 29, 2012
Terrific book. Read for "Thinking through the Ghost" and want to return to it again when I have more time to think about the implications for writing and understanding secular histories of 19th cent America. I'm also intrigued by the alternative histories suggested around abolitionism and the womens rights movement.
January 21, 2014
Rich and thought-provoking on a wide range of ideas, from collective memory of trauma to phantom imaginings of the subjugated Other, on to the continuation of religious ideas in a medical framework.
July 1, 2022
A secondary read on Spiritualism. Some new associations and references, but too much Foucault to be a primary or lasting source for non-(deconstruction and grievance) Theory researchers and the general public.
The author does pull in some interesting connections that the average reader- not a1 9thC amateur historian- might find interesting. Sentimentalism in Nineteenth-Century America. Death being viewed as an individual occurrence and not a communal loss. The Fox sisters tapping into the Gothic literature tradition/imagination- a fun connection. Transcendentalism, Shakers, Quakers and Swedenborgianism all find a quick mention. All good stuff. Women becoming a locus of religious power was a good topic. Abolition. Peace. Early Feminism. Physical health. All solid topics connected to Spiritualism. Mention of William Mumler, a nice reference.
Comstockery was new to me.
Mediomania was a new one on me, as well.
The late 1800s in the U.S. saw a lot of death, e.g., cholera and the Civil War. Trying to process that as a community could have led to the rise of Spiritualism. Told in many other histories of the subject, but worth noting.
The Native American chapter made sense, esp. in light of the visitations the Shakers had, and the moral debt the Americans owed in the wake of genocide - mixed into their uncertainty about early industrialism and the fetishist fantasy visions of "natural man".
But, I really do not need another chapter on queer studies to keep things modern, contemporary, nihilistic and woke when I am reading about Spiritualism.
It gets to be the de rigueur reductionism of mid-century U.S. academic grievance studies. It is like interpreting the rise of industrialism in relationship solely through the lenses of the oppressive colour mauve, or the Victorian's limited sense of smell, due to the industrialist powers that be.
It is too Foucault. [Who is referenced in the book as if current academics need to benediction and validation from a noted rapist, pedophile and murderer.]
It is weak. It is too perverse. It is too tiresome. It is too easy. And, most importantly, this weary approach undermined the rest of the book, and made it a footnote to the theories of a sociopathic criminal.
The author does pull in some interesting connections that the average reader- not a1 9thC amateur historian- might find interesting. Sentimentalism in Nineteenth-Century America. Death being viewed as an individual occurrence and not a communal loss. The Fox sisters tapping into the Gothic literature tradition/imagination- a fun connection. Transcendentalism, Shakers, Quakers and Swedenborgianism all find a quick mention. All good stuff. Women becoming a locus of religious power was a good topic. Abolition. Peace. Early Feminism. Physical health. All solid topics connected to Spiritualism. Mention of William Mumler, a nice reference.
Comstockery was new to me.
Mediomania was a new one on me, as well.
The late 1800s in the U.S. saw a lot of death, e.g., cholera and the Civil War. Trying to process that as a community could have led to the rise of Spiritualism. Told in many other histories of the subject, but worth noting.
The Native American chapter made sense, esp. in light of the visitations the Shakers had, and the moral debt the Americans owed in the wake of genocide - mixed into their uncertainty about early industrialism and the fetishist fantasy visions of "natural man".
But, I really do not need another chapter on queer studies to keep things modern, contemporary, nihilistic and woke when I am reading about Spiritualism.
It gets to be the de rigueur reductionism of mid-century U.S. academic grievance studies. It is like interpreting the rise of industrialism in relationship solely through the lenses of the oppressive colour mauve, or the Victorian's limited sense of smell, due to the industrialist powers that be.
It is too Foucault. [Who is referenced in the book as if current academics need to benediction and validation from a noted rapist, pedophile and murderer.]
It is weak. It is too perverse. It is too tiresome. It is too easy. And, most importantly, this weary approach undermined the rest of the book, and made it a footnote to the theories of a sociopathic criminal.
August 13, 2025
This is the comprehensive and insightful book on the history of Spiritualism in the US that I've read. (And I just read a bunch of them for an article I'm writing.) Reading this book--and others, but especially this one--made me go from thinking "What a bunch of nonsense" to "I completely understand why Spiritualism was such an appealing socio-religion during the 2nd half of the 19th century, and I didn't realize that some people who identified as 'Spiritualists' had such an impact on the women's rights and abolition movements." If you are at all interested in US history from 1848-the early 1900s, read this book!
November 15, 2018
Fascinating read about powerful women of history who gave us our spiritual freedom and the right to vote.
November 21, 2022
on my "reading entire books in a day" grind woooooo
May 23, 2010
I just checked out this highly intriguing book from the library and I'm already ordering it online. This is exactly what I've been looking for to provide a scholarly, insightful, intuitive foundation for our 'Spiritualism in Savannah' tour and future planned programs on the subject. I haven't even finished the introduction but I can already see that McGarry knows her subject, makes well researched and insightful connections between the world of spirit and the world of politics and contemporary culture -- Past and Present -- right now. Thank you, Dr McGarry for charting a new direction for 19th century spiritualism in the 21st century. I greatly look forward to reading the rest of this book and will gladly submit a review when I'm finished.
May 21, 2015
Important history marred by an ideological turn and the intrusion of contemporary politics in its final section.
April 30, 2023
intersting but dense
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews