Haunted Britain
Spiritualism, Psychical Research and the Great War
1st Edition
Published on 18. July 2023
336 pages
978-1-5261-6496-4 (ISBN)
Description
The Great War haunted the British Empire. Shell shocked soldiers relived the war's trauma through waking nightmares consisting of mutilated and grotesque figures. Modernist writers released memoirs condemning the war as a profane and disenchanting experience. Yet British and Dominion soldiers and their families also read prophecies about the coming new millennium, experimented with seances, and claimed to see the ghosts of their loved ones in dreams and in photographs. On the battlefields, they had premonitions and attributed their survival to angelic, psychic, or spiritual forces. For many, the war was an enchanting experience that offered proof of another world and the transcendental properties of the mind. Between 1914 and 1939, an array of ghosts lived in the minds of British subjects as they navigated the shocking toll that death in modern war exerted in their communities. -- .
Reviews / Votes
'This is a rich academic study... it shows an impressive skill in locating individual case studies to explore in both printed and archival materials in ways that can illuminate larger historical trajectories.'Prof. Roger Luckhurst -- .
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More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Illustrations
16 b&w illustrations
ISBN-13
978-1-5261-6496-4 (9781526164964)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
07/2023
Manchester University Press
€125.90
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Kyle Falcon is a historian specialising in the British Empire during the First World War. He is based in Ontario, Canada. -- .
Content
Introduction
1 Prophecies of war and peace: spiritualism and the new millennium
2 A psychic laboratory: numinous experiences and spiritualism on the Great War's battlefield
3 An empire of sensation: telepathy, crisis apparitions and the moment of death on the home Front
4 Living with the ghosts of war: death and mourning in the seance room
5 The army of the living dead: spirit photography and the public denial of death
Conclusion
Index -- .
1 Prophecies of war and peace: spiritualism and the new millennium
2 A psychic laboratory: numinous experiences and spiritualism on the Great War's battlefield
3 An empire of sensation: telepathy, crisis apparitions and the moment of death on the home Front
4 Living with the ghosts of war: death and mourning in the seance room
5 The army of the living dead: spirit photography and the public denial of death
Conclusion
Index -- .
