A Natural History Of Ghosts

Author : Roger Clarke
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141958146
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book A Natural History of Ghosts written by Roger Clarke and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A natural history of the supernatural from Roger Clarke, lifelong investigator into England's creepiest real-life ghost stories 'Is there anybody out there?' No matter how rationally we order our lives, few of us are completely immune to the suggestion of the uncanny and the fear of the dark. The subject of whether ghosts exist has fascinated some of the finest minds in history and it remains a subject of overwhelming interest today. This is the first comprehensive, authoritative and readable history of the evolution of the ghost in the west, examining as every good natural history should, the behaviour of the subject in its preferred environment: the stories we tell each other. What explains sightings of ghosts? Why do they fascinate us? What exactly did the haunted see? What did they believe? And what proof is there? Taking us through the key hauntings that have obsessed the world from the poltergeist of Cock Lane through the true events that inspired The Turn of the Screw and the dark events of Borley Rectory right up to the present day, Roger Clarke unfolds a story of class conflict, charlatans and true believers. His surprising castlist ranges from Samuel Johnson to John Wesley, and from Harry Houdini to Adolf Hitler. Inspired by a childhood spent in two haunted houses, Roger Clarke has spent much of his life trying to see a ghost. Written as grippingly as the best ghost fiction, A Natural History of Ghosts takes us on an unforgettable hunt through the most haunted places of the last five hundred years and our longing to believe.

Author : Roger Clarke
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1466857862
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Ghosts written by Roger Clarke and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice A comprehensive, authoritative and readable history of the evolution of the ghost in the west, examining the behavior of the subject in its preferred environment: the stories we tell each other. "Roger Clarke tells this [the story that inspired Henry James' The Turn of the Screw] and many other gloriously weird stories with real verve, and also a kind of narrative authority that tends to constrain the skeptical voice within... [An] erudite and richly entertaining book." —New York Times Book Review No matter how rationally we order our lives, few of us are completely immune to the suggestion of the uncanny and the fear of the dark. What explains sightings of ghosts? Why do they fascinate us? What exactly do those who have been haunted see? What did they believe? And what proof is there? Taking us through the key hauntings that have obsessed the world, from the true events that inspired Henry James's classic The Turn of the Screw right up to the present day, Roger Clarke unfolds a story of class conflict, charlatans, and true believers. The cast list includes royalty and prime ministers, Samuel Johnson, John Wesley, Harry Houdini, and Adolf Hitler. The chapters cover everything from religious beliefs to modern developments in neuroscience, the medicine of ghosts, and the technology of ghosthunting. There are haunted WWI submarines, houses so blighted by phantoms they are demolished, a seventeenth-century Ghost Hunter General, and the emergence of the Victorian flash mob, where hundreds would stand outside rumored sites all night waiting to catch sight of a dead face at a window. Written as grippingly as the best ghost fiction, A Natural History of Ghosts takes us on an unforgettable hunt through the most haunted places of the last five hundred years and our longing to believe.

Author : Paul Roland
Publisher : Arcturus Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1789502896
Total Pages : 583 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Complete Book of Ghosts written by Paul Roland and published by Arcturus Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-26 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ghosts and spirits populate the world around us. We just need to be sensitive or psychic enough to hear and see them. In this book, author Paul Roland examines a fascinating assortment of recorded sightings from as far back in history as Roman times. This serious look at ghosts presents them not as chain-rattling spooks or clouds of cold, swirling mist, but as entities with which we share a greater reality. A comprehensive exploration of the realm of the supernatural, from ghost ships and poltergeists to out-of-body experiences and the idea of spirits as the manifestation of people still living, The Complete Book of Ghosts will challenge your beliefs and preconceptions as never before.

Author : Mark V. Barrow
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226038157
Total Pages : 511 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Nature's Ghosts written by Mark V. Barrow and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rapid growth of the American environmental movement in recent decades obscures the fact that long before the first Earth Day and the passage of the Endangered Species Act, naturalists and concerned citizens recognized—and worried about—the problem of human-caused extinction. As Mark V. Barrow reveals in Nature’s Ghosts, the threat of species loss has haunted Americans since the early days of the republic. From Thomas Jefferson’s day—when the fossil remains of such fantastic lost animals as the mastodon and the woolly mammoth were first reconstructed—through the pioneering conservation efforts of early naturalists like John James Audubon and John Muir, Barrow shows how Americans came to understand that it was not only possible for entire species to die out, but that humans themselves could be responsible for their extinction. With the destruction of the passenger pigeon and the precipitous decline of the bison, professional scientists and wildlife enthusiasts alike began to understand that even very common species were not safe from the juggernaut of modern, industrial society. That realization spawned public education and legislative campaigns that laid the foundation for the modern environmental movement and the preservation of such iconic creatures as the bald eagle, the California condor, and the whooping crane. A sweeping, beautifully illustrated historical narrative that unites the fascinating stories of endangered animals and the dedicated individuals who have studied and struggled to protect them, Nature’s Ghosts offers an unprecedented view of what we’ve lost—and a stark reminder of the hard work of preservation still ahead.

Author : George Gibbs
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780947503086
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Ghosts of Gondwana written by George Gibbs and published by . This book was released on 2016-10 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever wondered why New Zealand's plants and animals are so different from those in other countries? Why kakapo is the only parrot in the world that cannot fly, or why the kiwi lives here and nowhere else? New Zealand is an extraordinary place, unique on earth, and the remarkable story of how and why life evolved here is the subject of Ghosts of Gondwana. The challenge of explaining New Zealand's natural origins is picked up in this fully revised edition of the popular award-winning book. It presents the latest scientific research in highly readable form, highlighting studies that reveal the deep historical background of our landscapes, fauna and flora - from ancient frogs and moa to delicate insects and the magnificent southern beech forests. It introduces the latest discoveries and resolves past issues like the 'Oligocene drowning' hypothesis. Exciting fossil discoveries are revealed and new scientific technologies and approaches to the discipline of historical biogeography are discussed - approaches that range from undersea geology to molecular clocks - and it inevitably draws attention to the debates and conflicts that distinguish different schools of opinion in this holistic branch of theoretical science. This revision incorporates the results of 10 years of intensive scientific research and includes four entirely new chapters to: focus on 'yesterday's maps' to draw attention to the ephemeral islands in our history that have possibly acted as stepping stones for terrestrial animals and plants but today have sunk into the sea; incorporate the author's own special interest in an ancient group of 'jaw-moths', unknown and unnoticed by most people but with a strong message that New Zealand is part of the world when it comes to explaining where our fauna have come from; present recent research findings on our huge flightless birds, the ratites; and include New Zealand's terrestrial molluscs into the story. Ghosts of Gondwana identifies New Zealand as one of the most challenging places on earth to explain, but it's readable, engaging style and revised illustrations render this often-controversial discipline of science into a format that is accessible to any reader with an interest in natural history and the unique environment of New Zealand.

Author : Dale Peterson
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520297717
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Ghosts of Gombe written by Dale Peterson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2018-04-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book, written by the author of the "definitive" biography of primatologist Jane Goodall, presents in sweeping detail the story of a group of young volunteers and students doing animal behavior research on chimpanzees, baboons, and red colobus monkeys at Dr. Goodall's research site in Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park during the late 1960s. Goodall, who began her work in the summer of 1960, was originally sponsored by the great paleontologist Louis Leakey and funded by the National Geographic Society. Her early studies of chimpanzees soon made her world famous as one of the great pioneers in primatology, and she began working to transform her original tented camp into a major field station for animal studies. Then came a tragic event that marked the final summer of that promising first decade and is the focus of this book. At aroundnoon, on Saturday, July 12, 1969, Ruth Davis, a young American working at Gombe as a volunteer, walked out of camp to follow a chimpanzee into the forest and never returned. Her body was found six days later floating in a pool at the base of a high waterfall. The Ghosts of Gombe explores the social tensions that developed among the small community of researchers during 1968 and 1969; considers thoroughly how the death might have happened; and describes the painful personal consequences for some of the surviving researchers."--Provided by publisher.

Author : Peter H. Aykroyd
Publisher : Rodale Books
ISBN 13 : 1605293512
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book A History of Ghosts written by Peter H. Aykroyd and published by Rodale Books. This book was released on 2009-09-29 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter Aykroyd spent his childhood watching his family's parlor séances through the crack of a basement door. Here, for the first time, Aykroyd tells the strange and delightful story that inspired his son, Dan, to make the mega-hit, Ghostbusters. Part history, part family legend, A History of Ghosts starts in 1848 in upstate New York, where the spiritualist craze first began. Aykroyd introduces the reader to notable mediums while telling the story of the development of spiritualism, interweaving a personal history marked by a fascination with ghosts and spirits with the larger narrative about the role the paranormal has played in our culture. Such legendary figures as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini appear and vanish. Everyone loves a good ghost story. Successful TV shows such as Medium and Ghost Hunters are proof that our national obsession with ghosts is here to stay. Millions of Americans believe in the paranormal—and even skeptics have heard a bump in the night and suspected it might be something supernatural.

Author : Lisa Morton
Publisher : Reaktion Books
ISBN 13 : 1780235372
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Ghosts written by Lisa Morton and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From that cheerful puff of smoke known as Casper to the hunkiest potter living or dead, Sam Wheat, there is probably no more iconic entity in supernatural history than the ghost. And these are just recent examples. From the earliest writings such as the Epic of Gilgamesh to today’s ghost-hunting reality TV shows, ghosts have chilled the air of nearly every era and every culture in human history. In this book, Lisa Morton uses her scholarly prowess—more powerful than any proton pack—to wrangle together history’s most enduring ghosts into an entertaining and comprehensive look at what otherwise seems to always evade our eyes. Tracing the ghost’s constantly shifting contours, Morton asks the most direct question—What exactly is a ghost?—and examines related entities such as poltergeists, wraiths, and revenants. She asks how a ghost is related to a soul, and she outlines all the different kinds of ghosts there are. To do so, she visits the spirits of the classical world, including the five-part Egyptian soul and the first haunted-house, conceived in the Roman playwright Plautus’s comedy, Mostellaria. She confronts us with the frightening phantoms of the Middle Ages—who could incinerate priests and devour children—and reminds us of the nineteenth-century rise of Spiritualism, a religion essentially devoted to ghosts. She visits with the Indian bhuta and goes to the Hungry Ghost Festival in China, and of course she spends time in Mexico, where ghosts have a particularly strong grip on belief and culture. Along the way she gathers the ectoplasmic residues seeping from books and film reels, from the Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto to the 2007 blockbuster Paranormal Activity, from the stories of Ann Radcliffe to those of Stephen King. Wide-ranging, informative, and slicked with over fifty unearthly images, Ghosts is an entertaining read of a cultural phenomenon that will delight anyone, whether they believe in ghosts or not.

Author : Susan Owens
Publisher : Tate
ISBN 13 : 9781849764674
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Ghost written by Susan Owens and published by Tate. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this rich survey Susan Owens explores the wide range of roles that ghosts have played in Britain's cultural life, looking at how they reflect our changing attitudes, our hopes and fears. Featuring a dazzling range of artists, including William Blake, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, Paul Nash, and Jeremy Deller, alongside writers such as William Shakespeare, Daniel Defoe, Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Hilary Mantel and Sarah Waters." -- Back cover.

Author : Reby E. MacDonald
Publisher : Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
ISBN 13 : 9780689715334
Total Pages : 164 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Ghosts of Austwick Manor written by Reby E. MacDonald and published by Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books. This book was released on 1991 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hillary and Heather are propelled back in time when their older brother, Donald, inherits a model of their family's ancestral home". . . . a most enjoyable novel".--School Library Journal.