Introduction
1: From the Golden Dawn to the Alchemical Society
2: Occult Chemistry, Instrumentation, and the Theosophical Science
of Direct Perception
3: Chemistry in the Borderland
4: Atomic Alchemy and the Gold Standard
Epilogue
Appendix A: Boundary-Work, Border Crossings, and Trading Zones
Appendix B: Occult Interest Books by Alchemical Society Members
Appendix C: A Partial List of Alchemical Society Members
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Mark Morrison is Associate Professor of English, Pennsylvania State University
"...fascinating and well-written. Strongly recommended to students
of the history of modern science."--Choice
"Modern Alchemy explores the revival of alchemy in the early
twentieth century, revealing a remarkable interaction between
occultists, Theosophists and cutting-edge science on radioactivity.
Mark Morrisson shows how pioneering work on intellectual borders
led to transmutations, a contest between radio-chemistry and
nuclear physics, and even changed attitudes to world finance and
the gold standard. A fine work of cultural history, Modern
Alchemy will be valuable to those interested in Western
esotericism, the history of ideas, alchemy and science, literature
and discourse." -- Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, author of The Occult
Roots of Nazism and Black Sun
"Morrisson's Modern Alchemy is an ambitious and original account of
the dynamic interactions between chemistry and the occult during
the tumultuous transformations of science at the dawn of the
twentieth century. Drawing from scientific publications,
literature, occult manifestoes, and a multitude of other sources,
the story told here cannot fail to provoke and at times astonish.
Morrisson amply demonstrates that truth is at times much stranger
than
fiction could hope to be." -- Michael D. Gordin, Princeton
University, author of A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and
the Shadow of the Periodic Table
"Modern Alchemy is a wonderful achievement. This genuinely exciting
book draws connections and parallels that would have escaped less
imaginative scholars. Mark Morrisson succeeds magnificently in
integrating the seemingly irreconcilable worlds of sober science
and the occult." -- Philip Jenkins, author of Mystics and Messiahs:
Cults and New Religions in American History
"Modern Alchemy explores the revival of alchemy in the early
twentieth century, revealing a remarkable interaction between
occultists, Theosophists and cutting-edge science on radioactivity.
Mark Morrisson shows how pioneering work on intellectual borders
led to transmutations, a contest between radio-chemistry and
nuclear physics, and even changed attitudes to world finance and
the gold standard. A fine work of cultural history, Modern
Alchemy will be valuable to those interested in Western
esotericism, the history of ideas, alchemy and science, literature
and discourse." -- Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, author of The Occult
Roots of Nazism and Black Sun
"Morrisson's Modern Alchemy is an ambitious and original account of
the dynamic interactions between chemistry and the occult during
the tumultuous transformations of science at the dawn of the
twentieth century. Drawing from scientific publications,
literature, occult manifestoes, and a multitude of other sources,
the story told here cannot fail to provoke and at times astonish.
Morrisson amply demonstrates that truth is at times much stranger
than
fiction could hope to be." -- Michael D. Gordin, Princeton
University, author of A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and
the Shadow of the Periodic Table
"Modern Alchemy is a wonderful achievement. This genuinely exciting
book draws connections and parallels that would have escaped less
imaginative scholars. Mark Morrisson succeeds magnificently in
integrating the seemingly irreconcilable worlds of sober science
and the occult." -- Philip Jenkins, author of Mystics and Messiahs:
Cults and New Religions in American History
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