Credulity: A Cultural History of US Mesmerism

by Emily Ogden

From the 1830s to the Civil War, Americans could be found putting each other into trances for fun and profit in parlors, on stage, and in medical consulting rooms. They were performing mesmerism. Surprisingly central to literature and culture of the period, mesmerism embraced a variety of phenomena, including mind control, spirit travel, and clairvoyance. Although it had been debunked by Benjamin Franklin in late eighteenth-century France, the practice nonetheless enjoyed a decades-long resurgence in the United States. Emily Ogden here offers the first comprehensive account of those boom years.
 
Credulity tells the fascinating story of mesmerism’s spread from the plantations of the French Antilles to the textile factory cities of 1830s New England. As it proliferated along the Eastern seaboard, this occult movement attracted attention from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s circle and ignited the nineteenth-century equivalent of flame wars in the major newspapers. But mesmerism was not simply the last gasp of magic in modern times. Far from being magicians themselves, mesmerists claimed to provide the first rational means of manipulating the credulous human tendencies that had underwritten past superstitions. Now, rather than propping up the powers of oracles and false gods, these tendencies served modern ends such as labor supervision, education, and mediated communication. Neither an atavistic throwback nor a radical alternative, mesmerism was part and parcel of the modern. Credulity offers us a new way of understanding the place of enchantment in secularizing America.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, American History, Religion

272 pages, Paperback

Published March 30, 2018

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sort of a two-sided book, Ogden usually performs a slow history unfolding in the first half of most chapters of the various types of mesmerism that flourished in the United States in the 19th century. Then she features in-depth literary criticism of contemporary fiction that corresponds with the history of mesmerism, which is fascinating. It was a super weird time.

Both modes of the book are harmonized by the connective tissue of analyzing the development of mesmerism in itself, but also as a window into how enchantment and credulity are used for the disenchanted purposes of secularism. The refrain of Ogden’s argument is her showing how concepts secular agency (self-control, being in command of one’s reason, etc.) actually depends, in various ways, on degrees of credulity.

Valuable contribution to post-secular critique, American religious history, and from what I can tell, American literary criticism. Too much of the book was about books I haven’t read for me to have loved it, but this is a very good book. Also remarkably well-written and clear for the genres of lit crit and secularism studies, both of which are often loaded with academic jargon and especially are when combined.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Credulity" felt very much like a dissertation-turned-book. That's not inherently criticism, but it speaks to the heavy emphasis on positioning an argument with the literature that can bog points down at times. That said, I found that part the most interesting -- the discussion of how we understand the mystical and magical in a secular age, especially the ways that they can both challenge and at times reinforce some of the underlying principles of secularism. I found the framing ultimately more compelling than the execution, which needed a clearer organization or narrative structure so that the reader doesn't feel moved along from example to example, analysis to analysis.

[Annika · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Credulity, Ogden gives a fascinating history of the stages of mesmerism and the wide variety of ways that people tried to use it, including as a means of controlling enslaved people and workers, for phrenological purposes, as an entertaining, profitable stage show, and, more positively, as a way to "travel," which sometimes gave mobility to those who had little control over their own lives. She persuasively argues against the simple disenchantment of the world/persistent enchantment of the world debate. In mesmerism, belief and disbelief were tied together. It was both "scientific" (according to mesmerists) and anti-scientific. Many practitioners didn't even believe that mesmerism itself was real, but rather that they could manipulate the psychology of others by pretending it was (which, as Ogden points out, is a distinction without a difference).

[EW Dyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book -- I used it in one of my courses this year, and it was great to think with. It also changed the way that I read the news, strangely enough, in particular when encountering stories about how one group of people accuses another group of people "credulousness" (usually using less polite words than "credulousness") in attempts to render their opponents irrelevant or dangerous. Once you start seeing this phenomenon, you see it everywhere.

[Steve Gnatz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I thought that the writing was informative, if a bit dry at times. It was obviously well researched and showed amazing depth of knowledge by the author. Now I only wish that I had a chance to take the class. It would have been fun to discuss.

[Jukka Häkkinen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kiinnostava kuvaus mesmerismin vaiheista Yhdysvalloissa. Kirja on paikoitellen raskas lukea, kirjoittaja liittää mesmerismin kirjallisuuuteen ja filosofiaan tavalla, joka vaatii keskittymistä. Taustatiedot filofiasta ovat monin paikoin hyödyllisiä.

[Catfantastic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a dense and difficult read, but beautifully argued. It rewards persistence with wry and witty observations, and at least one laugh-out-loud moment towards the end.

[Mills College Library]

154.70973 O344 2018

[Lindsay B]

I wasn't the right audience for this book. I was hoping for more of a narrative non-fiction that would survey the history of US mesmerism and perhaps speculate as to how that legacy still affects America today (especially with the rising prominence of conspiracy theories that are easily debunkable).... that wasn't this book.

Credulity felt more like an academic text that slowly went through all of the major players who brought mesmerism to America. Alongside this slow unfurling of history, Ogden interlaced literary commentary on fictional novels that dealt with mesmerism and theories behind secularism and modernity.

I found the history interesting, the literary parts less so, and the theories a bit dry. I also found this book overly repetitive. But I understand the repetition as an academic text because some readers might not start at the beginning of the book.

Bottomline, this book has a wealth of knowledge on mesmerism so if that's your hobby or course of study, I would highly recommend this book. But if you're like me, who wanted to read this apropos of nothing, just for funsies, you can skip it.