Edinburgh University Press Determined Spirits: Eugenics, Heredity and Racial Regeneration in Anglo-American Spiritualist Writing, 1848-1930 (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture)

Examines the Spiritualist movement's role in disseminating eugenic and hard hereditarian thought. Studying transatlantic spiritualist literature from the mid-19th to the early 20th century, Christine Ferguson focuses on its incorporation and dissemination of bio-determinist and eugenic thought. She asks why ideas about rational reproduction, hereditary determinism and race improvement became so important to spiritualist novelists, journalists and biographers in this period. She also examines how these concerns drove emerging Spiritualist understandings of disability, intelligence, crime, conception, the afterlife and aesthetic production. The book draws on rare material, including articles and serialized fiction from Spiritualist periodicals such as Light, The Two Worlds and The Medium and Daybreak as well as on Spiritualist healing, parentage and sex manuals. Key Features: *The first major study of Transatlantic Spiritualism's sustained commitment to eugenics, bio-determinism and hard hereditarianism *Devotes a chapter to eugenic and raciological writing of Paschal Beverly Randolph, the nineteenth-century African-American Rosicrucian and sex magician whose work has only recently been rediscovered by scholars * Interdisciplinary and historicist methodology * The rich transatlantic reading demonstrates the continuity and influence between British and American Spiritualist writings on the body, reproduction and mental fitness Review Ferguson's work is a superb exposition of what Robert S. Cox referred to in his Body and Soul (2003) as the 'inherently polyvocal' nature of the Anglo-American movement. --Ahren Lester, British Journal of the History of Science From the Inside Flap Series Editor: Julian WolfreysDrawing on provocative research, volumes in the series provide timely revisions of the nineteenth-century's literature and culture.DETERMINED SPIRITSEugenics, Heredity and Racial Regeneration in Anglo-American Spiritualist Writing, 18481930Christine FergusonThe reach of eugenics extended beyond the grave. Illuminating the dark rooms of spiritualist séances, this important study contests the fashionable representation of transatlantic Spiritualism as subversive and progressive, and reveals the surprising links between speaking to the dead and silencing the living.Elana Gomel, Department of English and American Studies, Tel-Aviv UniversityThis bold work demolishes many of our preconceptions about spiritualism by actually reading the wonderful, bizarre publications of the spiritualists themselves. Fergusons revelations will require everyone who is interested in gender, nationality, or eugenics in this context to rethink their assumptions.Jay Clayton, Vanderbilt UniversityExamines the Spiritualist movement's role in disseminating eugenic and hard hereditarian thoughtStudying transatlantic spiritualist literature from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, Christine Ferguson focuses on the incorporation and dissemination of bio-determinist and eugenic thought. The book draws on rare material, including articles and serialised fiction from Spiritualist periodicals such as Light, The Two Worlds and The Medium and Daybreak as well as on Spiritualist healing, parentage and sex manuals.Christine Ferguson is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow. Her previous publications include the monograph Language, Science, and Popular Fiction in the Victorian Fin-de-Siècle: The Brutal Tongue (2006).Jacket design concept by Cathy Sprent[insert logo file]www.euppublishing.comISBN 978-0-7486-3965-6 [please add in the white area above the barcode]Barcode From the Back Cover Series Editor: Julian Wolfreys Drawing on provocative research, volumes in the series provide timely revisions of the nineteenth-century's literature and culture. DETERMINED SPIRITS Eugenics, Heredity and Racial Regeneration in Anglo-American Spiritualist Writing, 1848-1930 Christine Ferguson 'The reach