Kirkus calls Barb Rosenstock’s AMERICAN SPIRITS “a suspenseful, well-researched read filled with fascinating and evocative visuals” in starred review

“A biography of the Fox sisters, mysterious 19th-century mediums whose spirit circles led to the foundation of a new, highly influential religion.

Kate was 14 and Maggie was only 11 when the Fox family heard mysterious rapping sounds in the cottage they’d just moved into in rural New York state in 1847. A neighbor believed the sounds were emanating from an “injured spirit.” Maggie and Kate, along with Leah, their much older, married sister, became known as the Rochester rappers, mediums who could speak to the dead by asking questions and translating their raps for clients. The sisters made an independent income by holding séances, creating the foundation for Modern Spiritualism. Against a backdrop of social upheaval—Christian revivals, cholera, abolitionism, the Civil War, and Reconstruction—the Fox sisters practiced their trade despite facing religious and personal criticism, skepticism from those who exposed frauds, financial crises, and alcoholism. The work highlights several famous believers, including Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mary Todd Lincoln.

In this meticulously researched work, Rosenstock effectively and objectively presents historical facts alongside primary sources—journal entries, letters, newspaper clippings, photos—as she explores whether the Foxes truly experienced supernatural phenomena or whether it was a hoax all along. She also excels at integrating the larger social and historical context in which Spiritualism rose to prominence, drawing clear connections between the facts presented. A suspenseful, well-researched read filled with fascinating and evocative visuals.” (Nonfiction. 14-18)

— Kirkus Reviews, starred review