Cover -- Half title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Men of a Thousand Hands -- Secrecy and Risk -- Being Magical -- Magic as a Culture of Expertise -- Staging Talk -- All the Tricks in the Book (An Overview) -- 1. An Apprenticeship in Cunning -- Profiles in Cunning -- Joining the Tribe -- Internalizing Magic -- Seeing through a Spectator's Eyes -- Ideologies of Learning -- Conclusion -- 2. The Social Life of Secret Knowledge -- Creating Secrets -- Circulating Secrets -- Destroying Secrets -- Conclusion -- 3. Potency and Performance -- Presenting Magic -- Outside the Box: Female Magicians -- Discourses of Domination -- Play Signals -- Conclusion -- 4. Business as Un-Usual -- "A Few Professionals Lost in a Sea of Amateurs" -- From the Stage to the Supermarket -- Getting the Job Done -- Intermittence du Spectacle -- "People Need to Know You're an Artist" -- Conclusion -- 5. Conjuring Culture -- The Family Romance of Modern Magic -- The Enchanted State -- Magic as Cultural Heritage -- Magic as Fine Art -- Toward a New Magic? -- Conclusion -- Epilogue: "Giving People a Gift" -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.