ACLS Humanities E-Book
view contents view reviews search within this book view related titles encoded text
HEB book cover
Wonder shows: performing science, magic, and religion in America
Fred Nadis
Year: 2006, c2005.
Publisher:  Rutgers University Press. 
© Rutgers University Press
Publisher's Website
view full catalog record
 
For full access to this item, please Login

table of contents
Title Page
Copyright and Permissions
List of Illustrations
List of Film Clips
[Dedication]
Acknowledgments
Preface
[Epigraph]
Part I: Electric Wonders
Introduction: Beyond the Z-Ray
[Intro]
The Natural History of Wonder
Wonder in America
The Rescue of "Progress"
Beyond the Z-Ray
On Vanishing Acts and Historical Analysis
Chapter One: The Electric Wonder Show
[Intro]
The Advent of the Forty-foot Flea
"I Bid You Hope"
"A Curious Case"
Selling to Barnum
Chapter Two: The Techno-Wizard
[Intro]
Toward the Electrical Wedding
Mr. Brown's Crusade
Gala Nights at the White City
Thomas Edison Conquers Mars
In Pursuit of "Entity X"
Part II: Mystic Vaudeville
Chapter Three: The Hypnotist
[Intro]
Marvelous Somnambules
Dime Museum Scientists
Enter the Master of "Bodic Forces"
The Regulation of "Degrading Exhibitions"
Progressive Entertainment or Grotesque Performance?
Chapter Four: The Magician
[Intro]
If Not Spirits What Is It?
The Strenuous Life of Harry Houdini
If There Is Anything in This Belief in Spiritism
The Medium Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even
Houdini Lives!
Enchantments in the Age of Disenchantment
Chapter Five: The Mind Reader
[Intro]
"The Curtain of the Mind Uplifted"
Love, Marriage, and Telepathy
An Otherworldly Meteorological Bureau
"Is Sense Necessary?"
Behaviorism versus the Other-dimensional Mind
A Showman Responds
Part III: Millennial Wonders
Chapter Six: The Missionaries
[Intro]
Professor Frost's Remarkable Astraphone
Conjuring in the House of Magic
The Million-volt Man
More Sugar for the Science Pill
Chapter Seven: Flying Saucers
[Intro]
Mars Revealed: Or, Seven Days in the Spirit World
Nikola Tesla Unbound
Free Energy, Perpetual Motion, and Free Enterprise
A New Sisterhood of Reform
Chapter Eight: The Many Gospels
[Intro]
Atlantis Rising
The Other Side of the World
Welding with Water Gas, or Fog Alarms in the Night
Grassroots Wonder and Salesmanship
Pseudoscience Revisited
Bibliographical Essay
[Intro]
Electricity
Hypnotism
Magic
Spiritualism and Parapsychology
Gee-Whiz Science
UFOs and the Occult
Skeptics All
Notes
Preface
Introduction: Beyond the Z-Ray
Chapter One: The Electric Wonder Show
Chapter Two: The Techno-Wizard
Chapter Three: The Hypnotist
Chapter Four: The Magician
Chapter Five: The Mind Reader
Chapter Six: The Missionaries
Chapter Seven: Flying Saucers
Chapter Eight: The Many Gospels
Index
About the Author
Return to top of page

reviews
Return to top of page

catalog record
Title: Wonder shows : performing science, magic, and religion in America / Fred Nadis.
Author: Nadis, Fred, 1957-
Extent: XML encoded text
E-Distribution Information: University of Michigan Library, Scholarly Publishing Office
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Permission must be received for any subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact info@hebook.org for more information.
Source Version: Wonder shows : performing science, magic, and religion in America / Fred Nadis. 
Nadis, Fred, 1957-
New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2006, c2005.
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.90024
Subject Headings: • Science news -- United States -- History -- 19th century
• Science news -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Magic shows -- United States -- History -- 19th century
• Magic shows -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Revivals -- United States -- History -- 19th century
• Revivals -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Notes: • Description based on t.p. screen of 2006-03-29.
• "This electronic book contains the following additional features not available in the print version: Links to external informational resources, 23 additional images, 4 color replacements, 5 film clips and 17 external hyperlinks"--Copyright and Permissions.
• Electronic access restricted; authentication may be required
Encoding Description:
 Project Description:
  Header created via MARC-to-XML-to-TEI transformation on 2011-06-23
 Editorial Declaration:
  This electronic text file was created via XML encoding. No corrections have been made to the text and no editing has been done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through automated and manual processes using the recommendations for Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines.
Return to top of page