Class, race and gender in the early American Marxist movement

[Maria Gilmore]

I've read about Conan Doyle.  Some trace his
belief in spiritualism to the tragic death of his
son; that was what first led him to seances, etc.
This in turn led him to endorse ideas that became
increasingly irrational...the Cottingly Fairies
being the classic example...the others, I wasn't
aware of...but...

This is totally conjecture on my part, but could
the turn-of-the-century, pre-WWI sense of
optimism, if not mastery and control, the British
ruling class was flush with, have made belief in
an afterlife that was both positive and real
(there IS one, we all live on) AND possible to
reach now (talk to the dead thru mediums)?  It's a
lot more fun and exciting and, well, fitting, if
you feel like the world is your oyster, to have
faith that the afterworld is too, and accessible.
A way to find comfort in a world that, no matter
how Brittania ruled the waves and God smiled on
the Empire, still seemed to have plenty of
everyday senseless death and destruction, even in
the lives of good respectable middle class
Victorians/Edwardians.