Andreas Sommer Facelift no. 1: A New Look across Platforms As a loyal, nay, devout reader of Forbidden Histories you have probably noticed the recent change in design. Feeling it was high time for a new look that was easy on the eyes and consistent across all our social media platforms, I also quickly realized my despicable … Read more
Disclaimer: This event is not organized by Forbidden Histories. If you have any questions regarding the conference, please contact the organizer, Dr. Efram Sera-Shriar, at e.sera-shriar@leedstrinity.ac.uk. Science and Spiritualism, 1750-1930 The Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies is pleased to announce a two-day conference, to take place at Leeds Trinity University on 30 and 31 May … Read more
Given my own specialization in the occult underbelly of the history of modern human sciences, the heretical preoccupations of William James as the ‘founding father’ of modern American psychology are a naturally recurring theme of Forbidden Histories. Some of you might be aware of a recent book by Krister D. Knapp, William James: Psychical Research … Read more
Thony Christie (Twitter handle @rmathematicus) is a British-born historian of early modern science and mathematics currently living in Franconia, Germany. He runs the blog, The Renaissance Mathematicus, and he was the editor of Whewell’s Gazette. Supporters of science, especially those who believe that empirical science is the only purveyor of truth in the world, like … Read more
Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm (Twitter: @Ghost_Image_) is Chair & Associate Professor of Religion at Williams College. Josephson-Storm received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Stanford University in 2006 and has held visiting positions at Princeton University, École Française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris, and Ruhr Universität, Germany. He is the author of The Invention of Religion in Japan (2012, … Read more
The history of Cambridge University fundamentally challenges modern assumptions that science has disenchanted the world. As can be expected, this is also reflected in its archival and library holdings. Some of the most curious items held at Cambridge University Library are found in the collection of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), which includes old … Read more
Introductory remarks According to a traditional standard narrative, the ‘decline of magic’ in western intellectual elites since the Enlightenment was the direct and inevitable consequence of advances in science and medicine, which rendered belief in ‘occult’ principles obsolete. Probably the best currently available survey of historical studies casting considerable doubt on this popular view is … Read more
Dear Fellow Historians (with apologies to all those non-historians among you lovely people): As some of you may have noticed, yesterday I knocked together a list of what I consider basic and introductory readings on the history of science and magic (to use a somewhat vague but convenient umbrella term). Dividing the compilation into only … Read more
It’s been a while… …but worry not: I’m well and all my limbs are still attached. Since my last sign of life as a blogger, my time has been swallowed up by never-ending work on my book and various articles, along with research-intensive job applications and grant proposals. I covered as Director of Studies in … Read more
Thanks to a travel grant from the British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) I was able to present a paper at this year’s British-North American Joint Meeting of the BSHS, CSHPS, and HSS in Canada. The presentation distilled a small part of a chapter in my forthcoming study on the formation of modern … Read more