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The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America
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About This Book
"There Is Life on the Planet Mars" —New York Times, December 9, 1906 The Times headline was no joke. In the early 1900s, many Americans actually believed that we had discovered intelligent life on Mars. The Martians—a truly bizarre tale reconstructed through newly discovered clippings, letters, and photographs by bestselling science writer David Baron—begins in the 1890s with Percival Lowell, a wealthy Harvard scion who was so certain of his Mars discovery that he (almost) convinced a generation of astronomers that grainy telescopic photographs of the red planet revealed meltwater and an intricate canal system, declaring "there can be no doubt that living beings inhabit our neighboring world" (New York Times). So frenzied was the reaction that international controversies arose. Tesla announced he had received Martian radio signals. Biologists debated whether Martians were winged or gilled. Martians headlined Broadway shows, and a new genre called science fiction arose. While Lowell's claims were savagely debunked, his influence sparked a compulsive interest in Mars and life in outer space that continues to this day.
Reviews
"Prepare to be dazzled."
"Baron personally visited historic sites connected to Mars coverage, providing a present-day connection to past enthusiasm."
"Baron seasons his narrative with striking details ..."
"The book is also rich with illustrations of primary sources, from newspaper articles to astronomers' sketches, that bring the story to life."
"Baron captures the milieu spanning the ends of the Victorian and Edwardian eras without jeering at their lack of modern sensibilities."
"Baron has evident good fun looking into the origins of an ongoing craze."
"The Martians, David Baron's riveting exploration of the Mars craze of the late 1800s and early 1900s, is a case study in the formation of unfounded beliefs ..."
"Baron...approaches his subject with clarity, style and narrative drive."
"It's an enthrallingly bizarre and surprisingly poignant account of humankind's limitless willingness to believe."
"It is not easy to make a pretentious blowhard wastrel like Lowell a sympathetic figure, but David Baron manages it admirably in The Martians, his convivial and rigorously researched history of the first Martian craze."
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