The cultural landscape of the Hudson River Valley is crowded with ghosts--the ghosts of Native Americans and Dutch colonists, of Revolutionary War soldiers and spies, of presidents, slaves, priests, and laborers. "Possessions" asks why this region just outside New York City became the locus for so many ghostly tales, and shows how these hauntings came to operate as a peculiar type of social memory whereby things lost, forgotten, or marginalized returned to claim possession of imaginations and territories. Reading Washington Irving's stories along with a diverse array of narratives from local folklore and regional writings, Judith Richardson explores the causes and consequences of Hudson Valley hauntings to reveal how ghosts both evolve from specific historical contexts and are conjured to serve the present needs of those they haunt. These tales of haunting, Richardson argues, are no mere echoes of the past but function in an ongoing, contentious politics of place. Through its tight geographical focus, "Possessions" illuminates problems of belonging and possessing that haunt the nation as a whole.

Back by popular demand A supernatural detective story Winner of the 1977 National Writers Club Award for Nonfiction

Now in paperback, this true story recounts a Philadelphia family's encounter with a supernatural presence in their eighteenth-century mansion. After experiencing footsteps at night, opening doors, strange sounds and activity that centered around the library, they investigate, unearthing the mansion's tragic past and changing their beliefs about the supernatural world.

In "Visits from the Afterlife," Browne journeys even deeper into The Other Side, detailing stirring true encounters, describing visitations with ghosts, in-transition spirits, and other troubled souls seeking peace and closure. She travels to locations as diverse as haunted homes and ships possessed by otherworldly forces. Through these spiritual visits, she explains the reasons behind many of the world's most bizarre and mysterious hauntings, and she shares her own personal, face-to-face experiences with these inexplicable phenomena. From surprising revelations about the spirit world to moving reunions with those who have moved on, Visits from the Afterlife once again illustrates spirits' profound and eternal influence on our earthly lives.

In the twenty-first century, as in centuries past, stories of the supernatural thrill and terrify us. But despite their popularity, scholars often dismiss such beliefs in the uncanny as inconsequential, or even embarrassing. The editors and contributors to The Supernatural in Society, Culture, and History have made a concerted effort to understand encounters with ghosts and the supernatural that have remain present and flourished. Featuring folkloric researchers examining the cultural value of such beliefs and practices, sociologists who acknowledge the social and historical value of the supernatural, and enthusiasts of the mystical and uncanny, this volume includes a variety of experts and interested observers using first-hand ethnographic experiences and historical records. The Supernatural in Society, Culture, and History seeks to understand the socio-cultural and socio-historical contexts of the supernatural. This volume takes the supernatural as real because belief in it has fundamentally shaped human history. It continues to inform people's interpretations, actions, and identities on a daily basis. The supernatural is an indelible part of our social world that deserves sincere scholarly attention. Contributors include: Janet Baldwin, I'Nasah Crockett, William Ryan Force, Rachael Ironside, Tea Krulos, Joseph Laycock, Stephen L. Muzzatti, Scott Scribner, Emma Smith, Jeannie Banks Thomas, and the editors

In this fascinating new collection, Sue Smitten leaves no stone unturned in her global search for spirits. Her interviews with eyewitnesses in places such as Ireland, Japan, South Africa and Germany show that geography and history vary greatly, but ghost motives for returning after death are remakably consistent.