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Reviewed by:
  • Ghost Hunters of the South
  • Alphine W. Jefferson
Ghost Hunters of the South. By Alan Brown. Jackson: The University Press of Mississippi, 2006. 393 pp. Hardbound, $50.00; Softbound, $22.00.

From the documentation of paranormal investigations in the 1850s and the prevalence of séances in elite homes in the late nineteenth century to the popularity of contemporary movies and television shows about ghosts, the occult, supernatural phenomena, vampires, and witches, Americans have been fascinated with the unknown. They have tried to communicate with the dead, conjure up spirits, receive messages and read signs from the nonphysical world, and see the dead for centuries. It is in that vein that Alan Brown’s book, Ghost Hunters of the South, has special significance. Traditional folklore about haunted houses, stories of Confederate soldiers still walking the battlefields, and tales of benevolent visitations from long-dead relatives have been a staple of Southern culture in particular and American history in general. This belief in ghosts has created the modern fascination with scientific investigations of ethereal occurrences. These practices range from channeling and spirit possession to the actual documentation and recording of extraordinary actions, encounters, noises, sightings, smells, and visitations.

Using oral history as his primary methodological tool, and serving as an occasional participant and observer, Brown fuses together a book that contains many [End Page 389] specific references to the supernatural. Without condescension, doubt, or judgment, he is able to work in the fertile ground of America’s South, where centuries of stories abound. Brown’s use of oral history to interview members of forty-four ghost-hunting groups in twelve different states is both authentic and deferential. He allows the interviewees to tell their own stories in their own voices. Given that he interviews people in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, he seems not to have any other agenda than to let the people talk about their involvement with the supernatural. This is both a strength and a weakness of his book. Allowing the people to record their stories gives the work value, in that ordinary people get to share their own personal stories without the constraints of a predetermined framework. While this replication of specific data and actual encounters becomes a weakness when the same information is presented about multiple groups in several states, it also lends credence to much of the oral testimony being recorded or videotaped.

In actuality, it is the people’s individual excitement about and familiarity with various pieces of equipment from cameras, computers, dowsing rods, Geiger counters, oscilloscopes, and thermal scanners that makes the book a valuable oral history resource. They explain these items in minute detail. These diverse groups of people will argue about the worth of some technique and dismiss the validity of others. The oral history narratives capture this passion, and its intensity is preserved and becomes part of the historical record. Brown delves into the internal dynamics of each group and the observable differences between the states. Obviously, in various forums and media, most states stake a claim to being the most haunted and possessing the most investigation-friendly environment. It is an interesting competition and brings together multiple types of people who would never interact in any other setting. Hence, Brown’s oral history book on ghost hunting provides a view of a slice of America that most people will never experience or know with any intimacy. In this way, he brings the reader inside the oral narrative as it is lived and then repeated for public consumption.

Listening to and recording the unique voices of so many different people expands the usage of oral history techniques and validates its academic and public history essentiality. Likewise, ghostlore is an area accorded little serious intellectual inquiry, and has been a long-neglected subject in the traditional academy, so Brown’s compilation offers fascinating and serious insight into this growing part of American popular culture and public activity. In the extensive descriptions of how the forty-four groups emerged, the author reveals how orality (oral history as meaningful person-to-person verbal exchange) functions increasingly in modern group formation and...

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