Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age by Raphael Cormack

 

Started this little book in a coffee shop this morning, finished it this evening. It's a weird book, there's a veneer of scholarship to it but it's so uncritical, bordering on credulous, about the putatively magical things the guys it's about are purported to have done that it's almost like reading a "lives of the saints" book. It's not literally a hagiography: At least, the guys it's about weren't particularly good guys, and they were pulling scams that even the author doesn't see the point in denying. I was hoping for a book that was weird, and the credulity here actually makes the subject matter less weird in a lot of ways, definitely not what I wanted or expected. Reasonably well-written, and has extensive sources, but still not particularly credible.