{"product_id":"ghosts-a-natural-history-500-years-of-searching-for-proof-9781250076090","title":"Ghosts: A Natural History: 500 Years of Searching for Proof","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003eEditor's Choice\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA comprehensive, authoritative and readable history of the evolution of the ghost in the west, examining the \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ebehavior\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e of the subject in its preferred environment: the stories we tell each other.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRoger Clarke tells this  the story that inspired Henry James' \u003ci\u003eThe Turn of the Screw\u003c\/i\u003e] and many other gloriously weird stories with real verve, and also a kind of narrative authority that tends to constrain the skeptical voice within...  An] erudite and richly entertaining book. --\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNo matter how rationally we order our lives, few of us are completely immune to the suggestion of the uncanny and the fear of the dark. What explains sightings of ghosts? Why do they fascinate us? What exactly do those who have been haunted see? What did they believe? And what proof is there? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTaking us through the key hauntings that have obsessed the world, from the true events that inspired Henry James's classic \u003ci\u003eThe Turn of the Screw\u003c\/i\u003e right up to the present day, Roger Clarke unfolds a story of class conflict, charlatans, and true believers. The cast list includes royalty and prime ministers, Samuel Johnson, John Wesley, Harry Houdini, and Adolf Hitler. The chapters cover everything from religious beliefs to modern developments in neuroscience, the medicine of ghosts, and the technology of ghosthunting. There are haunted WWI submarines, houses so blighted by phantoms they are demolished, a seventeenth-century Ghost Hunter General, and the emergence of the Victorian flash mob, where hundreds would stand outside rumored sites all night waiting to catch sight of a dead face at a window. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWritten as grippingly as the best ghost fiction, \u003ci\u003eA Natural History of Ghosts \u003c\/i\u003etakes us on an unforgettable hunt through the most haunted places of the last five hundred years and our longing to believe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e St. Martin's Griffin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/06\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781250076090\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 368\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.70lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.10h x 5.40w x 1.10d","brand":"Roger Clarke","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36648565014684,"sku":"9781250076090","price":21.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_2b170e78-a9f6-4e6d-bfa6-8746d7f2fc5c.jpg?v=1603870396","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/ghosts-a-natural-history-500-years-of-searching-for-proof-9781250076090","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}