Toil and Trouble
A Women's History of the Occult
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Narrated by:
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Tegan Ashton Cohan
About this listen
This celebration of forgotten magical women, from Salem to WitchTok, is a fascinating and empowering story for anyone interested in occultism or feminist history.
Meet the mystical women and nonbinary people from US history who found strength through the supernatural—and those who are still forging the way today. From the celebrity spirit mediums of the nineteenth century to contemporary activist witches hexing the patriarchy, women have long used magic and mysticism to seize the power they’re so often denied.
Organized around different approaches women have taken to the occult over the decades—using the supernatural for political gain, seeking fame and fortune as spiritual practitioners, embracing their witchy identities, and more—this book shines a light on underappreciated magical pioneers, including:
- Dion Fortune, who tried to marshal a magical army against Hitler;
- Bri Luna, the Hoodwitch, social media star and serious magical practitioner;
- Joan Quigley, personal psychic to Nancy Reagan;
- Marie Laveau, voodoo queen of New Orleans;
- Elvira, queer goth sex symbol who defied the Satanic Panic;
- and many more!
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Since the 1970s, an important new figure has appeared on the center stage of American evangelicalism - the celebrity preacher's wife. Although most evangelical traditions bar women from ordained ministry, many women have carved out unofficial positions of power in their husbands' spiritual empires or their own ministries. The biggest stars - such as Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer, and Victoria Osteen - write best-selling books, grab high ratings on Christian television, and even preach.
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Excellent and comprehensive review of the American female evangelical experience
- By bamamed on 08-07-24
By: Kate Bowler
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Bet on Black
- The Good News About Being Black in America Today
- By: Eboni K. Williams
- Narrated by: Eboni K. Williams
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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When The Real Housewives of New York City hired its first black cast member after more than 13 years on the air, attorney, speaker, and journalist Eboni K. Williams knew that the public would consider her a diversity hire. But instead of accepting the label, Williams re-envisioned her role as a “Diversity Higher,” an opportunity to prove the significance of Black excellence in the workspace and in society at-large. In this book, she shares all the benefits and advantages that have helped her and many others historically reach great heights in their careers and beyond.
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Bet On Black…thank you, thank you, thank you!
- By amina mack on 07-15-24
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The Trouble with White Women
- A Counterhistory of Feminism
- By: Kyla Schuller, Brittney Cooper - foreword
- Narrated by: Christine Lakin, Mela Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Women including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Sanger, and Sheryl Sandberg are commonly celebrated as leaders of feminism. Yet they have fought for the few, not the many. As award-winning scholar Kyla Schuller argues, their White feminist politics dispossess the most marginalized to liberate themselves. In The Trouble with White Women, Schuller brings to life the 200-year counter-history of Black, Indigenous, Latina, poor, queer, and trans women pushing back against White feminists and uniting to dismantle systemic injustice.
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Reframes the past by today’s standards
- By Dianne on 02-21-23
By: Kyla Schuller, and others
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Girl Gurl Grrrl
- On Womanhood and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Magic
- By: Kenya Hunt
- Narrated by: Kenya Hunt, Ebele Okobi, Jessica Horn, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Black women have never been more visible or more publicly celebrated. But for every milestone, every magazine cover, every new face elected to public office, the reality of everyday life for black women remains a complex, conflicted, contradiction-laden experience. An American journalist who has been living in London for a decade, Kenya Hunt has made a career of distilling moments, movements, and cultural moods into words. Her work takes the difficult and the indefinable and makes it accessible; it is razor sharp cultural observation threaded through evocative and relatable stories.
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Inspired
- By Amazon Customer on 01-29-21
By: Kenya Hunt
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The Marketing of Evil
- How Radicals, Elitists and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom
- By: David Kupelian
- Narrated by: David Kupelian
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Americans have come to tolerate, embrace, and even champion many things that would have horrified their parents' generation - from easy divorce and unrestricted abortion on demand to extreme body piercing and teaching homosexuality to grade schoolers. Does that mean today's Americans are inherently more morally confused and depraved than previous generations? Of course not, says veteran journalist David Kupelian.
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This should be recommended reading.
- By E. Giuetti on 08-01-17
By: David Kupelian
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African Europeans
- An Untold History
- By: Olivette Otele
- Narrated by: Olivette Otele
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Conventional wisdom holds that Africans are only a recent presence in Europe. But in African Europeans, renowned historian Olivette Otele debunks this and uncovers a long history of Europeans of African descent. From the third century, when the Egyptian Saint Maurice became the leader of a Roman legion, all the way up to the present, Otele explores encounters between those defined as "Africans" and those called "Europeans."
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A fascinating overview of overlooked history
- By Scott GG Haller on 09-25-21
By: Olivette Otele
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Feminism and Pop Culture
- Seal Studies
- By: Andi Zeisler
- Narrated by: Angela Reed
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Whether or not we like to admit it, pop culture is a lens through which we alternately view and shape the world around us. When it comes to feminism, pop culture aids us in translating feminist philosophies, issues, and concepts into everyday language, making them relevant and relatable. In Feminism and Pop Culture, author and cofounder of Bitch magazine Andi Zeisler traces the impact of feminism on pop culture (and vice versa) from the 1940s to the present and beyond.
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Really needs an update
- By Lori Grossman on 04-05-18
By: Andi Zeisler
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Men Explain Things to Me
- By: Rebecca Solnit
- Narrated by: Luci Christian Bell
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit takes on the conversations between men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don't. The ultimate problem, she shows in her comic, scathing essay, is female self-doubt and the silencing of women. Rebecca Solnit is the author of fourteen books about civil society, popular power, uprisings, art, environment, place, pleasure, politics, hope, and memory, most recently The Faraway Nearby, a book on empathy and storytelling.
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Great read - horrible performance
- By Denise Johnson on 03-26-15
By: Rebecca Solnit
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The Craft
- How the Freemasons Made the Modern World
- By: John Dickie
- Narrated by: Simon Slater
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Founded in London in 1717 as a way of binding men in fellowship, Freemasonry proved so addictive that within two decades it had spread across the globe. Masonic influence became pervasive. Under George Washington, the Craft became a creed for the new American nation. Masonic networks held the British empire together. Under Napoleon, the Craft became a tool of authoritarianism and then a cover for revolutionary conspiracy. Both the Mormon Church and the Sicilian mafia owe their origins to Freemasonry.
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The best book about Freemasonry out there.
- By Isaac Pea on 02-19-21
By: John Dickie
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Dark Star Rising
- Magick and Power in the Age of Trump
- By: Gary Lachman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Within the concentric circles of Trump's regime lies an unseen culture of occultists, power-seekers, and mind-magicians whose influence is on the rise. In this unparalleled account, historian Gary Lachman examines the influence of occult and esoteric philosophy on the unexpected rise of the alt-right.
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Step Right This Way!
- By Brad on 06-03-18
By: Gary Lachman
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America Bewitched
- The Story of Witchcraft After Salem
- By: Owen Davies
- Narrated by: J. Paul Guimont
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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America Bewitched is the first major history of witchcraft in America - from the Salem witch trials of 1692 to the present day. The infamous Salem trials are etched into the consciousness of modern America, the human toll a reminder of the dangers of intolerance and persecution. The refrain 'Remember Salem!' was invoked frequently over the ensuing centuries. As time passed, the trials became a milepost measuring the distance America had progressed from its colonial past, its victims now the righteous and their persecutors the shamed.
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excellent book
- By BraveSparrow on 07-30-16
By: Owen Davies
What listeners say about Toil and Trouble
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Alex Harker
- 12-09-22
Fascinating and well-researched, but might be better in print
I loved this book overall! Some chapters definitely piqued my interest more than others, but on the whole it was very well researched and I learned a lot. I think I would’ve preferred this book in print rather than listening to the audiobook because there was so much information to take in and names that I wanted to research further, which is tricky when listening vs. reading for me.
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- J h
- 01-04-24
Really good, just one little issue
Only issue I have is John Hathorne’s name was said as Hawthorne. It was said a few times and was the only thing that bothered me. Good overall though.
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- K Marc
- 05-11-23
Great for Beginners!
I loved the message and I did learn quite a bit, but if this is already a special interest of yours, you might know a lot of the details in this! But hearing it twice is always good for memory.
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