{"product_id":"spectral-america-jeffrey-andrew-weinstock-9780299199500","title":"Spectral America: Phantoms and the National Imagination","description":"From essays about the Salem witch trials to literary uses of ghosts by Twain, Wharton, and Bierce to the cinematic blockbuster \u003ci\u003eThe Sixth Sense, \u003c\/i\u003e this book is the first to survey the importance of ghosts and hauntings in American culture across time. From the Puritans' conviction that a thousand preternatural beings appear every day before our eyes, to today's resurgence of spirits in fiction and film, the culture of the United States has been obsessed with ghosts. In each generation, these phantoms in popular culture reflect human anxieties about religion, science, politics, and social issues.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eSpectral America \u003c\/i\u003easserts that ghosts, whether in oral tradition, literature, or such modern forms as cinema have always been constructions embedded in specific historical contexts and invoked for explicit purposes, often political in nature. The essays address the role of \"spectral evidence\" during the Salem witch trials, the Puritan belief in good spirits, the convergence of American Spiritualism and technological development in the nineteenth century, the use of the supernatural as a tool of political critique in twentieth-century magic realism, and the \"ghosting\" of persons living with AIDS. They also discuss ghostly themes in the work of Ambrose Bierce, Edith Wharton, Gloria Naylor, and Stephen King.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0299199509\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780299199500\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Popular Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/30\/2004\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 280\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.36h x 6.24w x 0.85d","brand":"Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44056863080703,"sku":"9780299199500","price":65.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_b7353747-e0f8-4f51-a1af-b02bec1af7c3.jpg?v=1685043677","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/spectral-america-jeffrey-andrew-weinstock-9780299199500","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}