The amazing story of James Tilly Matthews and his visionary madness is a startling portrait of a society on the brink of the modern age. London, the 1790s: Europe has been turned upside down by the French Revolution. Plots, counterplots and conspiracies seem to be edging England into a disastrous war with France. Operating undercover across the city is a gang of revolutionary " terrorists" armed with a machine unlike any the world has ever seen. They call it the Air Loom. It works by animal magnetism, sending invisible ...
Read More
The amazing story of James Tilly Matthews and his visionary madness is a startling portrait of a society on the brink of the modern age. London, the 1790s: Europe has been turned upside down by the French Revolution. Plots, counterplots and conspiracies seem to be edging England into a disastrous war with France. Operating undercover across the city is a gang of revolutionary " terrorists" armed with a machine unlike any the world has ever seen. They call it the Air Loom. It works by animal magnetism, sending invisible rays to control the minds of its victims. The gang has control of the minds of politicians and generals and is determined to plunge England further into the war with France. The only man who knows of this fiendish plot and believes he can stop it is a tea-merchant from Wales called James Tilly Matthews. But Matthews is a long-term resident of the Bethlem Royal Hospital -- " Bedlam." The Air Loom Gang tells the remarkable, true story of James Tilly Matthews whose delusions, while incarcerated in England's most notorious madhouse, became celebrated as the most complex and bizarre ever recorded -- the first man to believe that his mind was controlled by a machine. But the truth of his case was even stranger: many of the incredible episodes in which he claimed to have been involved were entirely real. The Air Loom Gang shines a light into the darkest recesses of Georgian England and witnesses the convulsive birth-pangs of modern psychiatry.
Read Less
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good+ in Near Fine dust jacket. 0593049977. Light bumping to spine extremities and rear lower corner. Bit of writing on front flyleaf. Blind stamp on title page. Else binding and pages clean. DJ is clean & bright with a trace of light bumping to spine extremities and rear lower corner.; BIH15A; 306 pages.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Extremely well written and researched on an intriguing subject. Almost a slim connection between today's whistle blowers or spies, and a period piece on the birth of terrorism laws and the gulf that can encompass those who believe they are making decisions based on their view of their own 'social conscience'.
