". . . 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.

An updated edition of a landmark book on the history of women's political activism and on the history of women and religion in America.

About the Author

Ann Braude teaches at the Harvard Divinity School and is co-editor of Roots of Bitterness: Documents in the Social History of American Women.

Reviews
"It would be hard to imagine a book that more insightfully combined gender, social, and religious history together more perfectly than Radical Spirits. 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. Braude's vivid prose and analytical clarity make an inherently fascinating story all the more compelling - a 'must read' for nineteenth-century U.S. historians whose recent scholarship only highlights the unique, blazing daring of Radical Spirits." Jon Butler, Yale University "Radical Spirits is a vitally important book. It is an original interpretation of Spiritualism that does far more than recount the narrow history of a single movement. In effect, the work recasts the history of women's rights in such a way as to show the dynamic impact of religion upon American culture, as it enabled women to become aware of their own voices in a culture that still sought to silence them... The book has ... influenced a generation of young scholars emerging into the profession ... no less than more senior social historians and scholars of religion." --Marie Griffith, Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University " ... [Radical Spirits] is a wonderful teaching book: it raises crucial questions about gender and race in relation to American religious creativity and asks students to think in new ways about religion and about women's history. My experience has been that students love reading and discussing it." --Robert Orsi, author of Thank You, St. Jude "Braude has discovered a crucial link between the early feminists and the spiritualists who so captured the American imagination during the middle of the [nineteenth] century." --Los Angeles Times "An insightful book and a delightful read." --Journal of American History "Continually rewarding." --New York Times Book Review



Book Information
ISBN 9780253215024
Author Ann Braude
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 458g