Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America [Paperback]

Ann Braude (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807075019 | ISBN-13: 978-0807075012 | Publication Date: May 6, 1991

"... Ann Braude still speaks powerfully to unique issues of women's creativity-spiritual as well as political-in a superb account of the controversial nineteenth-century Spiritualist movement." —Jon Butler

"Radical Spirits is a vitally important book... [that] has... influenced a generation of young scholars." —Marie Griffith

In Radical Spirits, Ann Braude contends that the early women's rights movement and Spiritualism went hand in hand. Her book makes a convincing argument for the importance of religion in the study of American women's history.

In this new edition, Braude discusses the impact of the book on the scholarship of the last decade and assesses the place of religion in interpretations of women's history in general and the women's rights movement in particular. A review of current scholarship and suggestions for further reading make it even more useful for contemporary teachers and students.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to Braude, many 19th-century women allayed fears of death through spiritualist beliefs; the comfort that spiritualism brought increased their confidence, allowing them to support women's rights and advance an array of causes from the abolition of slavery to women's suffrage and marriage reform. no pw review

Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Braude explores America's spiritualist movement in the context of 19th-century social, denominational, and political history. Spiritualism claimed, through contact with the dead, to be a scientific investigation into the immortality of the soul. The movement was associated with free speech and the abolition of slavery. Because it maintained that divine truth was accessible to any individual, female or male, and thus was accessible outside the male hierarchies of family, church, and politics, it became associated with feminism as well; many early women leaders in all three movements were also spiritualists. A fascinating, well-researched, and scholarly work on a peripheral aspect of the rise of the American feminist movement.
- Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, Ore.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (May 6, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807075019
• ISBN-13: 978-0807075012
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,517,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nineteenth Century Religion and Activism in the Making, March 29, 2005

By 

R. DelParto "Rose2" (Virginia Beach, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America, Second Edition (Paperback)

The nineteenth century was the most radical and revolutionary period for women in American society. Ann Braude's RADICAL SPIRITS: SPRITUALISM AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA examines the development and progression of women's rights as it pertained to religion and spirituality; when combined, they provided women the pulpit and the voice to participate in a society where they had been previoulsy confined to duties in the home. Indeed, women and feminism emerged from the churches and beckoned to the calls from women seeking an outlet to be emancipated from both a hierarchical church environment and a patriarchal home environment.

RADICAL SPIRITS attempts and succeeds at relating religion and women's history within the context of American history. The most unique aspect of this scholarship is the inclusion of the subject matter of religion and spiritual mediums. Mediums had an enormous effect on women's suffrage, and escalated and accounted for women's leadership in the community. Despite the fact that the most notable leaders of women's rights, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton did not necessarily participate in such activities, Braude takes into account those closely related to them: Anna Blackwell, Sarah Anthony Burtis, Mary Ann and Thomas Mclintock, and Lucretia Mott's dinner guests, a way to suggest that religion played a significant role in encouraging activism (xxi). RADICAL SPIRITS acknowledges religion and spiritualism in women's activities, and helps to present a better understanding of what shaped and molded women's rights in the United States during the nineteenth century.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Women Think They're Radical Today?!, December 19, 2002

By 

Benjamin R. Cox, III "RevBen02" (Groveland, Fl United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America, Second Edition (Paperback)

I first met this book in a seminar about Spiritualist history, and was most impressed by the research and breadth of the coverage. I was also startled by the involvement of the Spiritualist movement in all the major reform movements of the 19th century. Change was happening everywhere in the lives of women! Dress reform, marriage reform, divorce reform to mention a few. Also the involvement of major figures working in the suffrage movement, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In the mid-nineteenth century, women became the leaders on the Spiritualist platform, as mediums. They brought through the messages and information. From being in charge on the platform, they went into other areas where they were dominated by men and began to take more control. This book is the story of that tremendous period on change that has landed women where they are today. Today's women stand on the shoulders of those courageous women of the 19th century. Some one said to me,"If today's women were as radical as those women were, they would be chaining themselves to trees!" Enjoy!