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Ghost Hunters
Ghost Hunters
Oct 4, 2024 9:19 AM

Author:Deborah Blum

Ghost Hunters

In Victorian Britain, a group of eminent scientists got together to found a society expressly to prove the existence of ghosts.

The age of Darwin represented the greatest scientific advances known to man. The tension between science and religion was exposed by Darwin's On the Origin of the Species in 1859, which challenged the basic tenets of belief.

Yet many of those in the forefront of the scientific revolution could not give up the idea of a higher reality. Life after death was the unknown frontier. Victorian society was full of mediums claiming they could communicate with the spirits of the dead. Baffling psychic phenomena occurred every day at séances: mysterious rappings were heard, furniture moved, ghostly forms appeared, the mediums spoke in the altered voices of the dead with information only their nearest could possibly know. Pyschometry involving locks of hair and watches and children's toys; telepathy; ouija boards; apparitions; astral projection: all were commonplace.

In 1882 the Society of Psychical Research was founded in London to investigate all these phenomena: it was a group led by some of the greatest scientists of the age but its membership also included Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf's father, John Ruskin, the Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). Six months later William James, Professor of Psychology at Harvard, and the brother of Henry James visited London and went on to set up American branch.

Their experiments went on for years. Many mediums, like the notorious Madame Blavatsky, were exposed as charlatans yet there were some mediums who continued to communicate directly with another world, who despite every rigorous scientific test seemed to prove that souls survived death. This is the story of this group of forward thinkers: many of whom were driven to the spirit world by personal tragedy, some whose feeling of loss lead to their own suicides. It is the story of the greatest ghost hunt of any age.

Reviews

A book as fascinating as any detective story

—— Daily Mail

Blum presents a fascinating story in a very readable but accurate style...the climax of the book, as gripping as fiction, is an account of the séances held after the psychic researchers themselves had died

—— Guardian

Fascinating book...Blum can tell a good story. Compelling material

—— Time Out

As you read this book, your eye will be drawn to the corners of the room, to look for shadows, and to the curtains to check for unnatural billowing. It is spooky. This is history as you want it to be written. When I picked this one up, I would have told you I didn't believe in ghosts. And now I'm not so sure.

—— William Leith, daily Telegraph

Deborah Blum's Ghost Hunters is a fascinating, moving and, most importantly, paradigm-challenging account of the lives and works of the many scientists and thinkers who championed the cause of psychical research

—— Independent on Sunday

It is a fascinating, scholarly portrait of a perplexed, inquisitive age

—— Daily Telegraph

James Webb writes like Scots-Irish warriors take to the battlefield - with power and purpose, with courage and clarity. Born Fighting delights and inspires . . . he has written an extraordinary book

—— Randall Wallace, writer of Braveheart

Popular history at its finest

—— Booklist

An accessible and insightful overview of modern financial crises, incorporating both historical detail and thoughtful analysis

—— Kenneth Rogoff , Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and former Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund

Linda provides many with a very readable summary of all the great crises, but also more importantly derives the big lessons and how to have a better policy framework to avoid getting caught up in too much " this time it is different" when the next big risks appear

—— Lord Jim O'Neill , Author of The Growth Map and former Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management

A masterclass in spotting the early signs of a crisis. Linda Yueh expertly shows how we can understand these crashes better when they occur and even prevent them from happening in the future. A accessible yet rich study of our most turbulent economic years

—— Nouriel Roubini , author of Megathreats

This well-written book draws out the many different ways in which markets can crash and she's willing to chance her arm predicting the next one

—— Sir Vince Cable , author of How to be a Politician and former UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 2010-2015

A timely and instructive book on the big financial and economic crashes. It comes in the midst of a global polycrisis that threatens the economic and social well being of all especially the World's poorest citizens. Linda Yueh makes a heroic effort to tease out lessons fundamental to managing future crises. The question is: Will we learn?

—— Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala , Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and former Finance Minister of Nigeria, 2003-2006 and 2011-2015

Troubled times call for a historical perspective and this is the historical perspective we need

—— John Kay , author of Radical Uncertainty and former member of the Independent Commission on Banking of the UK Government, 2010-2011

Demonstrates how that old saying - "this time is different" - is both so true and so wrong!

—— Lord Stephen Green , former CEO and Chairman of HSBC and UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment, 2011-2013

Crashes are an integral part of the history of capitalism. The last century has seen plenty of them. All crashes begin with debt-fuelled euphoria and end in disappointment. Yet how bad that disappointment turns out to be also depends on where in the economy the crash falls and how determined and credible are the responses. In this lively and blessedly brief book, Linda Yueh does a lovely job of explaining the history and drawing the necessary lessons

—— Martin Wolf , Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times

This excellent overview identifies the ingredients that are specific to each crisis and common to all. She provides a lucid assessment of the efficacy of policy responses, high-lighting credibility as a necessary condition for successful resolution

—— Lord Nick McPherson, , former Permanent Secretary of the UK Treasury, 2005-2016, and Chairman of C. Hoare & Co.

"Why did nobody notice?" Was the question the Queen asked about the 2008 financial crisis. It was a good question. All financial crises and crashes have their own characteristics but they also often involve certain common features:- Irrational exuberance, Speculative frenzy, Greed and over confidence usually supported by high levels of gearing.

Linda Yueh's new book will be a timely reminder to governments and regulators of the warning signs of future crises

—— Lord Norman Lamont , former Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1990-1993

Timely, entertaining and full of useful insights

—— Gideon Rachman , Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, Financial Times

Renowned economist Dr Linda Yueh looks at past financial crashes - from the Wall Street Crash to the dot com boom and bust and the Covid pandemic - to explore what we can learn from them in this entertainingly written book.

—— i, Best New Books in May

Entertaining, well-written . . . [Yueh] has come up with a three-step framework to help spot when financial problems are brewing and identifies where the next may occur.

—— Ben Wright , Telegraph

A gifted writer (een begenadigd schrijver)

—— De Telegraaf

The book which impressed me most, and which I most enjoyed, this year is Andrew Roberts's George III. It is based on such astonishingly wide-ranging and original research that I felt I was reading about the period for the first time. Unknown facts and wonderful anecdotes had me turning the pages with a curiosity I seldom feel when reading about supposedly familiar events. Andrew Roberts is remarkably even-handed, and there is no special pleading on behalf of this genuinely misunderstood and wilfully misrepresented monarch who did his best to be a good constitutional ruler during a very choppy period in British history.

—— Adam Zamoyski , Aspects of History Books of the Year

meticulously researched ... an eye-opening portrait of the man and his times

—— Publishers Weekly

A deep, expansive study not only of George III but also of the political and social complexities of England and the United States during his reign.

—— Kathleen McCallister , Library Journal

a deeply textured portrait of George III [and] a capacious, prodigiously researched biography from a top-shelf historian.

—— Kirkus

an outstanding and surprisingly moving portrait of a misunderstood king, distinguished by refreshing revisionism but also illuminated by deep humanity.

—— Simon Sebag Montefiore , Spectator World Books of the Year

Roberts is in a rich vein of form at present; after bestselling books on Napoleon and Churchill, yet another masterpiece has tumbled from his pen.

—— Dan Jones , The Good Web Guide

Roberts has been justly acclaimed as one of his generation's leading historians ... His new biography seeks to challenge popular myths about the monarch. ... Roberts, employing the same flair for original research and ability to convey historical context and vivid prose that he used in previous books ... thoroughly debunks all the assumptions most people have about the king.

—— Jonathan Tobin , Washington Examiner

exhaustively researched and written in accessible, non-jargony prose. Meticulous and forensic, it sometimes reads like a defense counsel's case for his client ... Roberts's defense of George III, though, is the fullest, the clearest, and likely to be the most definitive.

—— Robert G. Ingram , National Review

Roberts has painted a masterful portrait of a patriotic, diligent and cultivated monarch. ... This new biography is a treasure-house of detail. ... George III is an engaging, humane and at times beautiful testament to the importance of giving our ancestors a fair hearing.

—— Harrison Pitt , European Conservative
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