Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places

It is extremely upsetting when you finish reading a book so enjoyable as Aaron Mahnke’s “The World of Lore” (despite its obvious flaws) and begin a book on the same subject that is dubious and is praised not only by the critics but also by academia. I can say that after three chapters, I find myself exhausted (if not annoyed) at reading Ghostlands. The succession of poor casuistic analysis to support a notorious skepticism depreciate all the interlocutors - already deceased - presented in this book. There is a clear pedantry in treating these people as victims of society or circumstances. At this point I do not even go further to discuss the existence or non-existence of the paranormal: even without resorting to supernatural explanations (because of his manifest skepticism), the author offers a reading that, although it is said to be multidisciplinary and in-depth, is contrastingly reductionist. When trying to debunk the paranormal discourses - seem here as cultural discourses only, socially constructed - the author does the same, creating a new set of cultural discourses which are equally socially constructed.