![]() Yet he does not summarize or discuss this book, except to say that his research began where theirs ended, with "the vulgarization of wonder" (p. For example, he suggests that his book is "deeply indebted to Lorraine Daston and Katherine Park's Wonders and the Order of Nature" (1998), which focuses on Europe from the medieval period to the scientific revolution. At several points Nadis sketches the scaffolding of possible methodologies without connecting them into a larger pattern. Yet, like a vaudeville show with many acts, the very breadth of the survey, from "magnetic health mats" to suspended animation to Houdini's escape artistry to corporate science displays at the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition to the Journal of New Energy, makes it difficult to create an overarching theory to connect the fascinating case studies. Overall, this is a good first book, worth the price of admission. Some were in collections at the University of Texas, Austin, where this book began as a dissertation others at the Smithsonian, the Bakken, and elsewhere. He has also located a wide range of primary materials, many new to this reviewer. He establishes in detail the persistent, if often nebulous, links between religion and science and shows not only that these have been exploited in wonder shows, but also that there is a surprising degree of continuity down to the present. Nadis has a lively writing style and he has read widely and done considerable primary research. The approach throughout is to focus on a few representative figures, with often-amusing illustrations and anecdotes. Third come wonder shows since 1950, including some evangelists, UFO cultists, New Age promoters, and the like. Second come hypnotists and mind readers whose "mystical vaudeville" differentiated them from the anti-Spiritualist crusades of Harry Houdini and more mainstream stage magicians. First come "performers, inventors, and electrical technicians" who "promoted electricity as a quasi-magical force" (p. The wonder shows are treated in nine chapters, divided into three groupings. While this definition suggests that the audience plays a crucial interpretive role, the book focuses primarily on performers and their startling acts, including itinerant showmen, mesmerists, stage magicians, vaudeville performers, mind readers, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Alva Edison, and actors working at General Electric's House of Magic or Westinghouse's Hall of Miracles. Nadis defines a wonder show as "a blend of science and showmanship that creates surprise and then pleasure in the spectator whose day-to-day perceptions are shattered and opened to new realms of possibility"(p. ![]() ![]() ![]() Fred Nadis moves, in roughly chronological order, through electrical demonstrations, miraculous cures, technological displays, mesmerism, magic, mind reading, world's fair exhibits, the Moody Bible Institute's films and Sermons from Science, conventions of flying-saucer enthusiasts, and contemporary inheritors of these traditions, who sell Q-Ray bracelets or attend such events as the annual Whole Life Expo that draws 100,000 people. It covers public performances of various kinds from about 1830 to the present, primarily in the United States, though at times covering showmen who operated in Britain as well. As its title promises, Wonder Shows is an entertaining book. ![]()
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