Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain

In Victorian England, thousands of women and hundreds of men were "mesmerized", twisted into bizarre postures and calling out in unknown languages. The Victorians were literally entranced with this phenomenon. Winter's cultural history focuses on mesmerism, making her book both a social history of the age and a lively exploration of the contested territory between science and pseudoscience. 23 halftones. 59 line drawings.