In this episode, the second in an occasional series on what has been learned writing this podcast, Matt pontificates on the relationship between ghost stories and history. He discusses how ghost stories both enhance and warp our understanding of the past. The relationship between historic understanding and the paranormal is complex and fascinating, and Matt tries to give a bit of insight.
This episode was written by Matthew Armstrong with music by Matthew Armstrong and production assistance from Kaylia Metcalfe.
The transcript for this episode can be found here.
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Show Notes and Sources
Finkel, Irving. 2021. The First Ghosts. Hodder & Stoughton, London.
Finucane, David J. 2001. Historical Introduction: The Example of Early Modern and Nineteenth-Century England. In Hauntings and Poltergeists, Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Edited by James Houran and Rense Lange.
Hanks, Michele. 2015. Haunted Heritage: The Cultural Politics of Ghost Tourism, Populism, and the Past. Routledge, London.
Hanks, Michelle. 2019. Haunted Objects: English Paranormal Investigation and the Material Mediation of Doubt. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Volume 22, Issue 4, pages 60–74.
Miles, Tiya. 2015. Tales From the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC.
Paz, Coya. 2022. “The haunting truth of ghost stories” – Ted Talk posted online Jan 21, 2022. Available online 2/18/23 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P68Vkp-h7c
Pirok, Alena. 2019. Goodwin’s Ghosts: Colonial Williamsburg’s Uncanny Legacy. The Public Historian, Vol. 41, No. 3 (August 2019), pp. 9–30.
Pirok, Alena. 2022. The Spirit of Colonial Williamsburg: Ghosts and Interpreting the Recreated Past. University of Massachusetts Press, Boston, MA.
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