title: Circling the Drain: Spiritual Crisis in America
author:  Benjamin W Brodie 
description: Benjamin W. Brodie received his theological training with an emphasis in Biblical Languages and Exposition at Western Theological Seminary. He holds graduate degrees in Finance and CIS, which add valuable insights into current economic and political events as his readers study the New Testament. His exegetical notes, doctrinal observations and clarifying annotations - used by Bible teachers and students internationally - are being sequentially published as commentaries according to online user statistics and email requests.
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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  
  
  This book was so much fun to write. Some of you may remember Will, the
  heroine’s stuffy older brother from Magnate. After I finished that first book,
  I couldn’t wait to give this handsome railroad baron his own happily ever
  after.
  
  
  One of the reasons I enjoyed writing Baron was because its leading lady is a
  medium. At the end of the Civil War, there was a sharp rise in the interest in
  spiritualism in America. (Mary Todd Lincoln even hosted a séance in the White
  House.) Few career options were available to women at the time, so
  spiritualism became a popular way for ladies to earn a living. And with so
  many young sons and husbands having died during the war, you can imagine how
  lucrative this career was for some.
  
  
  I owe a huge thank-you to my pal Todd Robbins, co-creator of the Off-Broadway
  show Play Dead and author of The Modern Con-Man: How to Get Something for
  Nothing. Todd is a walking, talking encyclopedia of spiritualism facts and
  trivia, and I picked his bra