| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.2

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 132 words from this article are provided below; about 346 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Wonder Shows: Performing Science, Magic, and Religion in America. By Fred Nadis. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005. xiv, 318 pp. $26.95, ISBN 0-8135-3515-8.)

Fred Nadis's book traces performers of "wonder shows" who built bridges across a constant but often indistinct American divide between science and spiritualism stretching from the mid-nineteenth century into the early twenty- first century. Constructing their ideas out of shifting mixtures of popular belief, skepticism, horror, social reform, and dreams of various kinds of cure, performers spoke to fears and fascinations evoked by machines, scientific discoveries, and the social contexts of industrial revolution and market forces within which those trademarks of modernity took shape. At the same time, they expressed a "popular modernism" comprised of magic and spiritualism that sought to re-enchant the world.

. . .

There are about 346 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.