Let the Dead Speak

Spiritualism in Australia

Matt Tomlinson author Andrew Singleton author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Manchester University Press

Publishing:14th Jan '25

£85.00

This title is due to be published on 14th January, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Let the Dead Speak cover

This book explores the historical and social dynamics of Spiritualism - a religious movement associated in the popular imagination with nineteenth-century parlour séances and ghost photography. It continues to be practised actively today in Australia, the UK, and USA. The authors draw on their deep fieldwork, interviews, and archival research to analyse Spiritualism’s resilience and the enduring popular appeal of mediumship.

There are three key contributions of the book: the first is that the scholarly study of “belief” should be rehabilitated. The authors propose a model of belief as a dialogue between claims to truth and commitments to institutions supporting those claims. The second is women’s agency in Spiritualism. From the movement’s beginnings, strong female leaders have decisively shaped its religious and political profile. The third is the need to analyse Australian Spiritualism as a distinct variant of a transnational Anglophone family of ritual practice.

ISBN: 9781526181022

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

240 pages