e-Book The Haunting of Twentieth-Century America: From the Nazis to the New Millennium (The Haunting of America) download

great

good book

One of this book's writers, William Birnes, was on the History Channel's excellent "UFO Hunters" until the channel dropped history for historical fiction and arrogant, morbidly obese pawn shop operators. He was the most excitable of the investigators and the most likely to explain a mystery with another mystery.

"The Haunting of Twentieth-Century America" is a survey of the supernatural in the era and place of the title. The writers downplay the otherwise apt word "occult' because they consider it tarnished by its association with evil. Among other topics, the book discusses Edgar Cayce, New Orleans voodoo, White House hauntings, the New Age Movement of the late sixties, and the unlikely, ironic sTARBABY affair. It now and then steps away from its focus, particularly in the chapter about Nazism's infatuation with the the occult.

The book is a sequel to Birnes and Martin's The Haunting of America: From the Salem Witch Trials to Harry Houdini, which, after a brief review of the paranormal and a chapter on the Salem witch trials, settled into a history of spiritualism in the U.S. from the colonial era to the end of the nineteenth century. Both books have long sections of potted history that can be forgiven by their being surveys, but this wasn't so annoying in the earlier of the two, an explanation for which might lie in its feeling like a labor of love while its sequel feels like an assignment. This second book's occasionally miscast sentences denote carelessness while its unneeded quotations and citations are flaws reminiscent of a crank's trying to make himself seem a serious researcher. In the earlier book, Birnes and Martin presented themselves as objective, and this wasn't a mere pose. You could feel them trying. In the second, they largely give up the struggle -- Marie Laveau really could make someone miserable with a doll and a handful of pins, Abraham Lincoln still wanders the White House after midnight wondering if he should have dismissed General McClellan earlier than he did, and, well . . . that's just how it is.

"The Haunting of Twentieth-Century America" says little that someone even vaguely knowledgeable about occult history doesn't know, and it suffers not only by comparison with its sister book, but, more importantly, with Colin Wilson's similar The Occult: A History,Mysteries: An Investigation into the Occult, the Paranormal and the Supernatural, and Beyond the Occult, all of which are generally recognized as classics by those who'll allow that status to books about the supernatural. The best I can say about Birnes and Martin's book is that someone utterly new to the subject who's not put off by careless writing and long, pro forma explication will find it worthwhile. In other words, if I'd come across it as a kid at the local drugstore the book and magazine racks of which served as my window on the world beyond my working-class hometown, I'd still think fondly of it and have my battered paperback copy on my bookshelves.

This book is well put up, although printed on cheap paper. It is, however, poorly organized, scattershot, and research is presented in a personal, loopy manner. Reading this book leaves one approximately as uninformed as not reading it would do. Much of the source material is used simply to reinforce a personal bias, and many of the assertions are downright crazy. This is pseudo scientific, this is pseudo-history, this Is not a particularly recommended book even as a diversion. Light weight in all ways.

In this sequel to The Haunting of America, the authors turn their attention to the past decade. The book's topics range from Nazis to turn-of-the-century psychics to spiritualism. The purposes of the book is to explain how these paranormal events not only were drastic in their own time, but were the catalyst to some world shattering decisions. The book tries to be part paranormal thriller with some basic government history classes thrown into the mix.

My biggest problem with the book is the bibliography. Many times the authors cites themselves in previous work as a source. This, and other not-creditable sources, leads me to think that this book was written with a bias. If it wants to be a history book, it is not off to a good start. The pace of the book is slow and sloppy at times. It was really hard to keep my interest throughout the book. A lack of plot, and a horribly segregated thought process, makes this book discouraging to read. Maybe if there was a clear thesis or idea, the book would be passable. The only positive thing I can say is that it was an all-right story. But that is what this book really is: just a story.

*Originally published for San Francisco/Sacramento Book Review*

Bought this as a gift. Never read it but I do plan to borrow it. LOL