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UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There
From New York Times-bestselling author Garrett M. Graff comes the first comprehensive and eye-opening exploration of our government’s decades-long quest to solve one of humanity’s greatest mysteries: Are we alone in the universe?
From the post-war Project Blue Book to the Pentagon’s modern-day Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, historian Garrett M. Graff presents the first serious narrative history of humanity’s hunt for alien life—including the military and CIA’s secret, decades-long quest to study UFOs.
A thrilling story of science, the Cold War, Nazi research, atomic anxieties, secret spy planes, and the space race, UFO traces the real-life history of the U.S. government’s hunt for “unidentified aerial phenomena” here on Earth, from Roswell to Rendlesham Forest, as well as the story of the small group of forward-thinking scientists—astronomers like J. Allen Hynek, Frank Drake, Carl Sagan, and Jill Tarter—who launched the search for extraterrestrial intelligence far from Earth. Drawing on original archival research, declassified documents, and interviews with senior intelligence and military officials, Graff's book traces the long history of our quest to understand one of the most profound and popular questions of all time: whether or not aliens exist.
From the post-war Project Blue Book to the Pentagon’s modern-day Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, historian Garrett M. Graff presents the first serious narrative history of humanity’s hunt for alien life—including the military and CIA’s secret, decades-long quest to study UFOs.
A thrilling story of science, the Cold War, Nazi research, atomic anxieties, secret spy planes, and the space race, UFO traces the real-life history of the U.S. government’s hunt for “unidentified aerial phenomena” here on Earth, from Roswell to Rendlesham Forest, as well as the story of the small group of forward-thinking scientists—astronomers like J. Allen Hynek, Frank Drake, Carl Sagan, and Jill Tarter—who launched the search for extraterrestrial intelligence far from Earth. Drawing on original archival research, declassified documents, and interviews with senior intelligence and military officials, Graff's book traces the long history of our quest to understand one of the most profound and popular questions of all time: whether or not aliens exist.
544 pages, Hardcover
First published November 14, 2023
346 people are currently reading
5809 people want to read
About the author
Garrett M. Graff
19 books825 followersGarrett M. Graff, a distinguished magazine journalist and historian, has spent more than a dozen years covering politics, technology, and national security. He’s written for publications from WIRED to Bloomberg BusinessWeek to the New York Times, and served as the editor of two of Washington’s most prestigious magazines, Washingtonian and POLITICO Magazine, which he helped lead to its first National Magazine Award, the industry’s highest honor.
Graff is the author of multiple books, including "The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House," which examined the role of technology in the 2008 presidential race, and "The Threat Matrix: The FBI At War," which traces the history of the FBI’s counterterrorism efforts. His next book, "Raven Rock," about the government’s Cold War Doomsday plans, will be published in May 2017, and he's currently on an oral history of September 11th, based on his POLITICO Magazine article, "We're The Only Plane in the Sky."
His online career began with his time as Governor Howard Dean’s first webmaster, and in 2005, he was the first blogger accredited to cover a White House press briefing. Today, he serves as the executive director of the Aspen Institute’s cybersecurity and technology program.
Graff is the author of multiple books, including "The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House," which examined the role of technology in the 2008 presidential race, and "The Threat Matrix: The FBI At War," which traces the history of the FBI’s counterterrorism efforts. His next book, "Raven Rock," about the government’s Cold War Doomsday plans, will be published in May 2017, and he's currently on an oral history of September 11th, based on his POLITICO Magazine article, "We're The Only Plane in the Sky."
His online career began with his time as Governor Howard Dean’s first webmaster, and in 2005, he was the first blogger accredited to cover a White House press briefing. Today, he serves as the executive director of the Aspen Institute’s cybersecurity and technology program.
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January 13, 2024
“It’s not that the government knows something it doesn’t want to tell us; it’s that the government is uncomfortable telling us it doesn’t know anything at all. It’s a bafflement that hints at a more exciting and intriguing truth: there is something out there, and none of us yet know what it is…For now, we are left with math, physics, astronomy, and a mystery. Carl Sagan dedicated his life to his hunt, wondering whether humans were alone, a hunt that popularized him even as it caused his peers to sneer at his scientific credentials. As he saw it, ‘In a very real sense this search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a search for a cosmic context for mankind, a search for who we are, where we have come from, and what possibilities there are for our future – in a universe vaster in both extent and duration than our forefathers ever dreamed of.’ As it turns out, in the end, the story of the hunt for ‘them’ is mostly actually a story about us…”
- Garrett Graff, UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life Here – and Out There
The question as to whether life – specifically intelligent life – exists elsewhere in the universe is a fascinating one. On the one hand, the odds seem to favor company, no matter how far away, given the near-infinite spaces we’re talking about. On the other, the idea of actually coming into contact with alien beings challenges rational thought. In short, it’s hard to believe and hard not to believe, all at once.
Unfortunately, the question is terribly obscured by the tumultuous passions surrounding it. If you want to study the prospects of extraterrestrial life, you have to push through layers of UFO sightings, dubious accounts of crashed alien spaceships, unlikely abductees forced to undergo excessive rectal probing, and vast governmental conspiracies, many of which are – in the nature of such theories – contradictory.
The value in Garrett Graff’s UFO is that it provides an ambitious survey of the many facets comprising the search for alien life, and does so with a relatively open mind. To be sure, Graff is not a true believer, but neither is he a sneering skeptic. Mostly, he goes where the evidence leads.
Of course, in such a polemical field, those readers who strongly believe – to the point of certainty – one way or another will probably get nothing out of this, or openly despise it. However, if you haven’t already staked out a position, and are interested in the broad contours of one of the great scientific and philosophical issues of all time, this is a pretty excellent overview.
***
As the subtitle suggests, UFO operates on two different levels.
First, Graff is interested in the possibility of alien visits to earth, and of the role of the United States government in searching for – or covering up – the existence of such visitors. Here, we’re talking about events like the famous Roswell incident in 1947, involving the crash of an atom-sniffing Army Air Force balloon from Project Mogul, which some believe was actually a flying saucer that managed to cross space and time with relative ease, only to nosedive into the desert.
Second, Graff also explores efforts to search for extraterrestrial intelligence – known as SETI – beyond our little world. This is a far more mundane, scientifically grounded storyline, one that includes efforts to monitor electromagnetic radiation for transmissions from other planets.
***
Graff is telling a big story here, starting in 1947 and ending in the present day. In presenting this material, UFO proceeds chronologically, but is arranged episodically. That is, given the fractured nature of the tale being told, there is not a single narrative. Instead, UFO is divided into three big sections, with a total of fifty-one separate chapters.
Many of these chapters are quite short – only a few pages long – and are often self-contained, focusing on a single event or sequence. For example, there is a chapter on the so-called Socorro Incident in 1964, when a New Mexico police officer – with no obvious motive to lie or distort – reported a fire in the sky, followed by an explosion. When the officer went to the scene, he saw a football-shaped, aluminum-colored object on the ground, which suddenly took off and flew away.
There are also chapters on Project Sign and Project Blue Book, which were efforts by the U.S. military to catalogue and investigate reports of unidentified flying objects. While these programs are often woven into cover-up conspiracies, they were actually the result of very real fears of surveillance by unfriendly actors such as the Soviet Union.
Though many chapters are one-offs, some are part of a longer arc, to which Graff returns throughout the book. For instance, Graff follows Jill Tarter and Frank Drake in their attempts to search for radio communications from outer space, a longstanding campaign that began with Project Ozma in 1959, and continued for decades after.
***
UFO tries to have something for everyone, with the result that I found its quality to be inconsistent. Some of the chapters were great. I really enjoyed the sections on cattle mutilations (which are probably caused by natural predators), crop circles (which are probably pranks), and the saga of Harvard psychologist John Mack, who risked ridicule and his career to engage with people claiming to have experienced alien abductions.
I found myself less interested in the SETI efforts – which involved a lot of fundraising – and the potential discovery of a tiny Martian worm on a meteor fragment. This material just can’t compare to the prospect of visitation by highly-intelligent creatures small in size and green in color.
***
The nature of UFO is such that it embraces scope over depth, touching on a lot of different areas, but having to do so superficially. Indeed, as Graff notes at the outset, many of the occurrences he discusses have been the subject of numerous large books. This worked fine for me, because I’m a newcomer to the field. I was looking for a summary, not a focused monograph. You will likely feel differently if you’ve ever read the works of Charles Berlitz, visited Roswell, or worn a t-shirt that says: The Truth Is Out There.
Nevertheless, Graff can be idiosyncratic in what he chooses to highlight versus what gets relegated to footnotes, or ignored completely. To take one example, Graff devotes an entire chapter to the formulation of life on earth, which is a lot of effort to prove a single point: that a lot of things had to go right to create the conditions we now enjoy. Meanwhile, Graff relegates the ethics of sending messages out into the galaxy to a single footnote, a subject I felt deserved a lot more space.
***
I found UFO to be objective, but objectivity is in the eye of the beholder. Believers in alien life – who tend to be more energetic than the doubters – will undoubtedly conclude that Graff is simply part of the ongoing governmental scheme to keep humanity ignorant.
To be sure, Graff does spend a lot of time scouring myths, puncturing suppositions, and rebutting allegations. Yet he derives his conclusions from fact and logic, not ad hominem attacks or disparagement.
The reality is that a lot of the things seen in the sky are natural phenomena, or provably human-made. Moreover, the idea that the federal government is competent enough to maintain a veil of secrecy over something as incredible as advanced alien spaceships plummeting into our deserts is simply at odds with its track record. In addition, claims that the U.S. Government is nefariously suppressing visitation presupposes that aliens have only visited our jurisdiction. As Graff notes in several chapters detailing international happenings, any conspiracy of silence would involve the cooperation of numerous national governments, an idea as fantastical as alien creatures themselves.
Ultimately, it beggars belief that aliens would travel countless light years just to kidnap random motorists, perform sex-tinged experiments, butcher cattle, or mess with a cornfield, without any attempt at contacting world leaders or exploring major cities.
My mind is open to change, but it's going to take more than remote hearsay, seconds-long glimpses of light in the sky, or a string of circumstantial clues to convince me.
***
Belief is faith, and faith is what we’re talking about when we talk about the possibility of contact with intelligent beings from different worlds. I’m dubious of most alien reports, and doubt we’ll have an answer in our lifetimes. Still, I yearn for it as much as anyone, just as long as it does not result in an intergalactic war. It would not only be the biggest news story in history, but it would be a profound symbol of possibility, proof that all things – gods and ghosts and miracles – are possible.
- Garrett Graff, UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life Here – and Out There
The question as to whether life – specifically intelligent life – exists elsewhere in the universe is a fascinating one. On the one hand, the odds seem to favor company, no matter how far away, given the near-infinite spaces we’re talking about. On the other, the idea of actually coming into contact with alien beings challenges rational thought. In short, it’s hard to believe and hard not to believe, all at once.
Unfortunately, the question is terribly obscured by the tumultuous passions surrounding it. If you want to study the prospects of extraterrestrial life, you have to push through layers of UFO sightings, dubious accounts of crashed alien spaceships, unlikely abductees forced to undergo excessive rectal probing, and vast governmental conspiracies, many of which are – in the nature of such theories – contradictory.
The value in Garrett Graff’s UFO is that it provides an ambitious survey of the many facets comprising the search for alien life, and does so with a relatively open mind. To be sure, Graff is not a true believer, but neither is he a sneering skeptic. Mostly, he goes where the evidence leads.
Of course, in such a polemical field, those readers who strongly believe – to the point of certainty – one way or another will probably get nothing out of this, or openly despise it. However, if you haven’t already staked out a position, and are interested in the broad contours of one of the great scientific and philosophical issues of all time, this is a pretty excellent overview.
***
As the subtitle suggests, UFO operates on two different levels.
First, Graff is interested in the possibility of alien visits to earth, and of the role of the United States government in searching for – or covering up – the existence of such visitors. Here, we’re talking about events like the famous Roswell incident in 1947, involving the crash of an atom-sniffing Army Air Force balloon from Project Mogul, which some believe was actually a flying saucer that managed to cross space and time with relative ease, only to nosedive into the desert.
Second, Graff also explores efforts to search for extraterrestrial intelligence – known as SETI – beyond our little world. This is a far more mundane, scientifically grounded storyline, one that includes efforts to monitor electromagnetic radiation for transmissions from other planets.
***
Graff is telling a big story here, starting in 1947 and ending in the present day. In presenting this material, UFO proceeds chronologically, but is arranged episodically. That is, given the fractured nature of the tale being told, there is not a single narrative. Instead, UFO is divided into three big sections, with a total of fifty-one separate chapters.
Many of these chapters are quite short – only a few pages long – and are often self-contained, focusing on a single event or sequence. For example, there is a chapter on the so-called Socorro Incident in 1964, when a New Mexico police officer – with no obvious motive to lie or distort – reported a fire in the sky, followed by an explosion. When the officer went to the scene, he saw a football-shaped, aluminum-colored object on the ground, which suddenly took off and flew away.
There are also chapters on Project Sign and Project Blue Book, which were efforts by the U.S. military to catalogue and investigate reports of unidentified flying objects. While these programs are often woven into cover-up conspiracies, they were actually the result of very real fears of surveillance by unfriendly actors such as the Soviet Union.
Though many chapters are one-offs, some are part of a longer arc, to which Graff returns throughout the book. For instance, Graff follows Jill Tarter and Frank Drake in their attempts to search for radio communications from outer space, a longstanding campaign that began with Project Ozma in 1959, and continued for decades after.
***
UFO tries to have something for everyone, with the result that I found its quality to be inconsistent. Some of the chapters were great. I really enjoyed the sections on cattle mutilations (which are probably caused by natural predators), crop circles (which are probably pranks), and the saga of Harvard psychologist John Mack, who risked ridicule and his career to engage with people claiming to have experienced alien abductions.
I found myself less interested in the SETI efforts – which involved a lot of fundraising – and the potential discovery of a tiny Martian worm on a meteor fragment. This material just can’t compare to the prospect of visitation by highly-intelligent creatures small in size and green in color.
***
The nature of UFO is such that it embraces scope over depth, touching on a lot of different areas, but having to do so superficially. Indeed, as Graff notes at the outset, many of the occurrences he discusses have been the subject of numerous large books. This worked fine for me, because I’m a newcomer to the field. I was looking for a summary, not a focused monograph. You will likely feel differently if you’ve ever read the works of Charles Berlitz, visited Roswell, or worn a t-shirt that says: The Truth Is Out There.
Nevertheless, Graff can be idiosyncratic in what he chooses to highlight versus what gets relegated to footnotes, or ignored completely. To take one example, Graff devotes an entire chapter to the formulation of life on earth, which is a lot of effort to prove a single point: that a lot of things had to go right to create the conditions we now enjoy. Meanwhile, Graff relegates the ethics of sending messages out into the galaxy to a single footnote, a subject I felt deserved a lot more space.
***
I found UFO to be objective, but objectivity is in the eye of the beholder. Believers in alien life – who tend to be more energetic than the doubters – will undoubtedly conclude that Graff is simply part of the ongoing governmental scheme to keep humanity ignorant.
To be sure, Graff does spend a lot of time scouring myths, puncturing suppositions, and rebutting allegations. Yet he derives his conclusions from fact and logic, not ad hominem attacks or disparagement.
The reality is that a lot of the things seen in the sky are natural phenomena, or provably human-made. Moreover, the idea that the federal government is competent enough to maintain a veil of secrecy over something as incredible as advanced alien spaceships plummeting into our deserts is simply at odds with its track record. In addition, claims that the U.S. Government is nefariously suppressing visitation presupposes that aliens have only visited our jurisdiction. As Graff notes in several chapters detailing international happenings, any conspiracy of silence would involve the cooperation of numerous national governments, an idea as fantastical as alien creatures themselves.
Ultimately, it beggars belief that aliens would travel countless light years just to kidnap random motorists, perform sex-tinged experiments, butcher cattle, or mess with a cornfield, without any attempt at contacting world leaders or exploring major cities.
My mind is open to change, but it's going to take more than remote hearsay, seconds-long glimpses of light in the sky, or a string of circumstantial clues to convince me.
***
Belief is faith, and faith is what we’re talking about when we talk about the possibility of contact with intelligent beings from different worlds. I’m dubious of most alien reports, and doubt we’ll have an answer in our lifetimes. Still, I yearn for it as much as anyone, just as long as it does not result in an intergalactic war. It would not only be the biggest news story in history, but it would be a profound symbol of possibility, proof that all things – gods and ghosts and miracles – are possible.
November 14, 2023
3.5⭐
Having only heard of War of the Worlds but not the sequence of the broadcasting, I can see how the infamous radio broadcasting had caused mass hysteria. It's also an interesting way to kick-start this book.
UFO is a treasure trove of information. Did Graff cover all the sightings in recent history since the 40s? Also interesting to think that I haven't heard the term flying saucer used in a long time. Roswell, Project Blue Book, Men in Black, Project Ozma, and so on. Why are unexplained sightings more frequent during times of war? 👽🛸
There's a lot of information but with short chapters, UFO was not difficult to read.
The closest galaxy is 2.5 million light-years away. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles~ Mars is about 140 million miles ~ not even one light year away) NASA estimated there are about 200 billion galaxies. Wow.....🤦♀️ Surely, some life is out there and we can't be so lucky to be the only ones.
Thank you to Avid Reader Press for providing this DRC!
Published Nov. 14, 2023
Having only heard of War of the Worlds but not the sequence of the broadcasting, I can see how the infamous radio broadcasting had caused mass hysteria. It's also an interesting way to kick-start this book.
UFO is a treasure trove of information. Did Graff cover all the sightings in recent history since the 40s? Also interesting to think that I haven't heard the term flying saucer used in a long time. Roswell, Project Blue Book, Men in Black, Project Ozma, and so on. Why are unexplained sightings more frequent during times of war? 👽🛸
There's a lot of information but with short chapters, UFO was not difficult to read.
The closest galaxy is 2.5 million light-years away. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles~ Mars is about 140 million miles ~ not even one light year away) NASA estimated there are about 200 billion galaxies. Wow.....🤦♀️ Surely, some life is out there and we can't be so lucky to be the only ones.
The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. We are so insignificant that I can't believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. That would be like saying that you would disappear if I closed my eyes. -Stephen Hawkins
Thank you to Avid Reader Press for providing this DRC!
Published Nov. 14, 2023
September 27, 2024
Thank you to Avid Reader Press for an advanced reader's copy of UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government's Search for Alien Life Here--and Out There, by Garrett M. Graff for an unbiased review. I must add that Mr. Graff wrote The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11, a beautiful and haunting book.
OK, I admit that I was taken with the title of this well-researched and well-documented book about the phenomenon of interplanetary space exploration and travel. Having grown up in New Mexico, it was not an uncommon sight to see strange flying objects in our skies. My father, a skeptic at heart, always maintained that he saw some unexplained phenomenon in those western skies. It is in this book, we have a glimpse of the extensive research launched by the U.S. Government's quest into the phenomenon of UFO's. It is a book that is engagingly written as we explore the decades of reports of flying saucers to Sputnik to the exploration of Mars. In the Epilogue, Garrett M. Graff talks about the strides that were made with the viewing of the arresting images of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2022, and captivating the country.
OK, I admit that I was taken with the title of this well-researched and well-documented book about the phenomenon of interplanetary space exploration and travel. Having grown up in New Mexico, it was not an uncommon sight to see strange flying objects in our skies. My father, a skeptic at heart, always maintained that he saw some unexplained phenomenon in those western skies. It is in this book, we have a glimpse of the extensive research launched by the U.S. Government's quest into the phenomenon of UFO's. It is a book that is engagingly written as we explore the decades of reports of flying saucers to Sputnik to the exploration of Mars. In the Epilogue, Garrett M. Graff talks about the strides that were made with the viewing of the arresting images of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2022, and captivating the country.
"It is impossible to view the images of galaxies and stars so numerous and far away that we cannot even fathom their existence without feeling incredibly small, like our tiny blue dot in the solar system, the center of so much emotion and flurry of daily drama and activity, is an equally insignificant and unimaginable speck in the galaxy. But in fact, we are among the first generations of humans to do so."
October 2, 2023
I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley allowing me a chance at reading this.
I'm really torn on how to rate it. By no means is it a bad book, it's just... bare. I was looking for a deeper expose or a deeper insight on cases / incidents throughout history. But look at the topic - what I expect is almost unthinkable. Since the topic is so hush hush and guarded, if anything got leaked in this book or even the slightest push of confirming something, the news and media world would have a frenzy.
So what IS this book? Well. It feels like a love letter to Carl Sagan and the other scientists who were obsessed with UFO's back in the 50's and 60's and how they pushed / championed for' the study of them and how the 'topic' came to be a part of mainstay public speculation.
So again, there is nothing spilled or bombshelled in this. If you're a casual Unsolved Mysteries / insert random TV or story here about a certain incident, you know the same as you did when you picked up this book. With the writers previous books I expected more. But hey, maybe we'll just never know and when we finally do, well, others will write a different book.
I'm really torn on how to rate it. By no means is it a bad book, it's just... bare. I was looking for a deeper expose or a deeper insight on cases / incidents throughout history. But look at the topic - what I expect is almost unthinkable. Since the topic is so hush hush and guarded, if anything got leaked in this book or even the slightest push of confirming something, the news and media world would have a frenzy.
So what IS this book? Well. It feels like a love letter to Carl Sagan and the other scientists who were obsessed with UFO's back in the 50's and 60's and how they pushed / championed for' the study of them and how the 'topic' came to be a part of mainstay public speculation.
So again, there is nothing spilled or bombshelled in this. If you're a casual Unsolved Mysteries / insert random TV or story here about a certain incident, you know the same as you did when you picked up this book. With the writers previous books I expected more. But hey, maybe we'll just never know and when we finally do, well, others will write a different book.
August 1, 2024
The claim that there are no UFOs with an extra-terrestrial origin is a non-falsifiable hypothesis. There is no data that I could provide that could show that UFOs don’t exist. The burden of proof lies with the claimant. The UFO claim is a pseudo-science and is as meaningful as saying ‘reindeer can fly.’ I can’t prove reindeer can’t fly but one could easily prove the statement true by showing Santa Claus in his sleigh with flying reindeer on Christmas Eve; it would only take one convincing data point. This book gave no convincing data point.
All the babble presented in this book seemed to have been presented elsewhere and I’ve been reading these kind of stories for the last 50 years. I’m not sure why this book was written except to rehash all the dubious claims that we have already read about elsewhere.
There’s a better book then this book that connects the psychological reason for why people want to believe in UFOs with an extra-terrestrial origin called “American Cosmic” by D. W. Pasulka. That book connects how at the root of UFO conspiracies is the search for a meaning to life outside of a quotidian existence.
At times this book would get beyond the humdrum nature of obviously bogus UFO sightings and slip into the same language that religious people use when trying to defend their claims while ineffectively proving their version of a God. This author would have been wise to connect those various threads and give the reader a better narrative that tied together the history of the UFO phenomena with human psychology. Instead, the author mostly just presented a dry recitation of mostly familiar items that anyone who has followed UFO stories was already very familiar with.
All the babble presented in this book seemed to have been presented elsewhere and I’ve been reading these kind of stories for the last 50 years. I’m not sure why this book was written except to rehash all the dubious claims that we have already read about elsewhere.
There’s a better book then this book that connects the psychological reason for why people want to believe in UFOs with an extra-terrestrial origin called “American Cosmic” by D. W. Pasulka. That book connects how at the root of UFO conspiracies is the search for a meaning to life outside of a quotidian existence.
At times this book would get beyond the humdrum nature of obviously bogus UFO sightings and slip into the same language that religious people use when trying to defend their claims while ineffectively proving their version of a God. This author would have been wise to connect those various threads and give the reader a better narrative that tied together the history of the UFO phenomena with human psychology. Instead, the author mostly just presented a dry recitation of mostly familiar items that anyone who has followed UFO stories was already very familiar with.
February 12, 2024
TLDR: This is a book that looks at the speculation of alien life within the context of how the government and science have dealt with it in a nuanced and insightful way. Check out my full thoughts below, and in my video review.
UFO by Garrett M. Graff was one of the best books I read all year. UFO claims to unveil the inside story of the US government's search for UFOs and extraterrestrial life, but it does much more than that by framing the story in a nuanced and multifaceted way.
As a planetary scientist and astrobiologist, my work intersects with the search for life outside Earth. However, I am also a skeptic, influenced by the idea, popularized by Carl Sagan, that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. My understanding of the science kept UFOs as mostly an intriguing, but fundamentally fallacious, concept. However, the recent release of government UFO files created what felt like a professional obligation to explore it further--at the very least to ensure I understand these files in the broader context of UFO lore.
It was not something I was actively seeking, but it was enough to spark my interest when I saw Graff's book. Graff is known for his well-documented works like "Watergate: A New History" and "The Only Plane in the Sky". His approach to handling sensitive government information suggested that "UFO" would be more than just sensationalist storytelling, and that is a very important foundation to establish when reading about something so extraordinary. Nevertheless, I was trepidatious about picking this up because of often fringe science can be poorly communicated, and even if it is done right, that doesn't automatically translate to a good book. Fortunately, Graff doesn't disappoint. He navigates the complex subject of UFOs with a balance that does justice to the topic.
One key point Graff emphasizes is the scientific approach to UFOs. Anecdotal evidence, no matter how abundant, isn't reliable. This book doesn't shy away from the mythos surrounding UFOs and alien encounters, but it grounds these in a scientific perspective. Graff's historical journey through UFO sightings, starting from the early 1900s, isn't just a recount of events. It's an exploration of how the government and scientific community have engaged with these claims. In that sense, it isn't a comprehensive review of all UFO or alien encounters. Instead, it focuses on significant cases and how they've been investigated by authorities. A comprehensive review would likely make for dull reading and would fail to communicate the larger context of these situations. Trust in the author's perspective is crucial here, and from my standpoint, Graff provides a well-rounded analysis.
A highlight for me was the interconnecting of historical accounts with the scientific discussion of UFOs. The book acknowledges UFOs and the idea of extraterrestrial life as topics worthy of serious consideration, contrasting them with the larger-scale, legitimate search for life beyond Earth. All the while, it explores the issues and, at times, ignorance around these situations. Even if it doesn't disprove that aliens are actually visiting earth, it clearly communicates how so much evidence of their presence could (and does) arise through other means. That does a lot to establish the underlying point that UFOs as aliens simply aren't a serious phenomenon.
The book isn't strictly a critique of UFO mythology; it's also a bridge to the more rational and exciting possibilities of finding life in the universe. While I believe in the likelihood of microbial life elsewhere, the probability of intelligent extraterrestrial life remains an open question for me. The book adeptly covers this spectrum, from skepticism to legitimate scientific inquiry, fostering the readers excitement around aliens but towards legitimate areas of research.
In conclusion, UFO is a brilliantly executed book, perfect for someone like me with a deep passion for the search for extraterrestrial life. It's more than just an engaging read; it's a journey through the complexities of understanding UFOs and the hunt for life beyond our planet. Whether you're a UFO enthusiast or a skeptic, this book is bound to offer a fresh, well-rounded perspective.
Strongly recommend.
UFO by Garrett M. Graff was one of the best books I read all year. UFO claims to unveil the inside story of the US government's search for UFOs and extraterrestrial life, but it does much more than that by framing the story in a nuanced and multifaceted way.
As a planetary scientist and astrobiologist, my work intersects with the search for life outside Earth. However, I am also a skeptic, influenced by the idea, popularized by Carl Sagan, that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. My understanding of the science kept UFOs as mostly an intriguing, but fundamentally fallacious, concept. However, the recent release of government UFO files created what felt like a professional obligation to explore it further--at the very least to ensure I understand these files in the broader context of UFO lore.
It was not something I was actively seeking, but it was enough to spark my interest when I saw Graff's book. Graff is known for his well-documented works like "Watergate: A New History" and "The Only Plane in the Sky". His approach to handling sensitive government information suggested that "UFO" would be more than just sensationalist storytelling, and that is a very important foundation to establish when reading about something so extraordinary. Nevertheless, I was trepidatious about picking this up because of often fringe science can be poorly communicated, and even if it is done right, that doesn't automatically translate to a good book. Fortunately, Graff doesn't disappoint. He navigates the complex subject of UFOs with a balance that does justice to the topic.
One key point Graff emphasizes is the scientific approach to UFOs. Anecdotal evidence, no matter how abundant, isn't reliable. This book doesn't shy away from the mythos surrounding UFOs and alien encounters, but it grounds these in a scientific perspective. Graff's historical journey through UFO sightings, starting from the early 1900s, isn't just a recount of events. It's an exploration of how the government and scientific community have engaged with these claims. In that sense, it isn't a comprehensive review of all UFO or alien encounters. Instead, it focuses on significant cases and how they've been investigated by authorities. A comprehensive review would likely make for dull reading and would fail to communicate the larger context of these situations. Trust in the author's perspective is crucial here, and from my standpoint, Graff provides a well-rounded analysis.
A highlight for me was the interconnecting of historical accounts with the scientific discussion of UFOs. The book acknowledges UFOs and the idea of extraterrestrial life as topics worthy of serious consideration, contrasting them with the larger-scale, legitimate search for life beyond Earth. All the while, it explores the issues and, at times, ignorance around these situations. Even if it doesn't disprove that aliens are actually visiting earth, it clearly communicates how so much evidence of their presence could (and does) arise through other means. That does a lot to establish the underlying point that UFOs as aliens simply aren't a serious phenomenon.
The book isn't strictly a critique of UFO mythology; it's also a bridge to the more rational and exciting possibilities of finding life in the universe. While I believe in the likelihood of microbial life elsewhere, the probability of intelligent extraterrestrial life remains an open question for me. The book adeptly covers this spectrum, from skepticism to legitimate scientific inquiry, fostering the readers excitement around aliens but towards legitimate areas of research.
In conclusion, UFO is a brilliantly executed book, perfect for someone like me with a deep passion for the search for extraterrestrial life. It's more than just an engaging read; it's a journey through the complexities of understanding UFOs and the hunt for life beyond our planet. Whether you're a UFO enthusiast or a skeptic, this book is bound to offer a fresh, well-rounded perspective.
Strongly recommend.
February 9, 2025
Świetna książka, na którą czekałem. Ponieważ jest oparta na faktach a nie teoriach spiskowych wyciąganych z wiadomej części ciała. Jak wskazuje tytuł, autor opisuje - na podstawie ujawnionej, znanej wiedzy historię badania przez amerykański rząd fenomenu przypadków UFO. Mamy tu zatem prawie sto lat historii, która z całą pewnością zawiedzie poszukiwaczy „prawdy”, ponieważ prawda jest prozaiczna i niosąca nieuchronny zawód. Amerykańskie instytucje wywiadowcze wiedzą o UFO żałośnie mało. Jedyną sensacją jest to, że od początku pojawienia się tego fenomenu był on traktowany poważnie. Powstawały projekty, wdrażano badania itp. Co więcej, to poważne traktowanie wynikało z tego, że było i jest nadal mnóstwo wiarygodnych przypadków pojawienia się tych obiektów. Organizacje wywiadowcze prowadziły ich klasyfikację, aby odcedzić wariackie lub hochsztaplerskie przypadki od tych prawdziwych. Między innymi o tym jest ta książka. Zbiera w jednym miejscu historię badania UFO. Ale nie liczcie na odpowiedzi. Prawda, jako rzecz hasło czy motto serialu „The X-Files” jest wciąż out there.
March 22, 2024
UFO
by Garret M. Graff.
Review by Galen Weitkamp.
Do alien beings from other planets or other dimensions visit us daily? Study us? Abduct us? Probe us? Tag us like animals? Are the world governments involved in a giant intergalactic cover-up or are we really all alone in the expanding universe, light years and eons away from any potential intelligent neighbors?
Garret M. Graff has sorted through the recently unclassified records and, with this book, clues us in on all the once-upon-a-time confidential secrets.
I for one am not so sure there’s a species of life on Earth with whom aliens would care to converse. Humans have got to be the cruelest, most violent and self-destructive thinking creatures in the Galaxy. If we want others to talk to us perhaps we should first work on our “people” skills.
by Garret M. Graff.
Review by Galen Weitkamp.
Do alien beings from other planets or other dimensions visit us daily? Study us? Abduct us? Probe us? Tag us like animals? Are the world governments involved in a giant intergalactic cover-up or are we really all alone in the expanding universe, light years and eons away from any potential intelligent neighbors?
Garret M. Graff has sorted through the recently unclassified records and, with this book, clues us in on all the once-upon-a-time confidential secrets.
I for one am not so sure there’s a species of life on Earth with whom aliens would care to converse. Humans have got to be the cruelest, most violent and self-destructive thinking creatures in the Galaxy. If we want others to talk to us perhaps we should first work on our “people” skills.
January 6, 2024
Wow. This was great. Many reviews have focused on the fact that there's "nothing new." If you mean, does Graff uncover a secret government facility filled with alien beings ... no. But I'm not sure that was his intention.
What he does succeed in doing, is give context to the entire topic. By beginning with the post WWII year and going right up to the 2023 new bombshells, he does a great job of putting it all in perspective. And I have to say--I strangely enjoyed the Footnotes. Footnotes! It was like receiving tiny episodes of "the rest of the story." Well done, Mr. Graff.
Highly recommend for anyone interested in UFOs or SETI.
What he does succeed in doing, is give context to the entire topic. By beginning with the post WWII year and going right up to the 2023 new bombshells, he does a great job of putting it all in perspective. And I have to say--I strangely enjoyed the Footnotes. Footnotes! It was like receiving tiny episodes of "the rest of the story." Well done, Mr. Graff.
Highly recommend for anyone interested in UFOs or SETI.
October 5, 2024
What if someone treated the subject of UFOs as simply another part of normal history, without the need to prove or disprove space aliens? What if a writer approached the topic without assuming the existence of vast government conspiracies? That's what we've got here - one the most grounded and multidisciplinary books probably ever written on the subject.
I unexpectedly found this on the new non-fiction shelf at my public library. As a kid I was really fascinated by UFOs (and cryptozoology, but not ghosts; I was intrigued by the unknown natural, not the supernatural). As adult, studying history and historical research nearly destroyed my interest in those subjects because I came to understand how bad most of the sources were, how biased most of the writers were, and the amount of deliberate hoaxing and other lying (not the least of which being the revelations of Shockingly Close to the Truth : Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist). Conspiracy theories are driven by fundamental ignorance about human memory, burden of proof, and interrogation of evidence. Even in completely mundane history I've encountered people who very fervently believe things due to misreporting of the facts and/or that have first-hand or second-hand "knowledge" of events that simply never happened (misunderstanding, misremembering, or misinformed). And being severely nearsighted my entire life I have a great appreciation for the unreliability of the Mk. I eyeball.
Graff provides an overview of ufology since World War II. Most of the sightings are ones I am familiar with from long ago readings, but a few were new to me. Even the Navy's "tic tac" UFO sightings are addressed. None is explored in depth, but potential explanations are offered for most of them - all plausible and some almost certain. In some cases these explanations are from the 21st century.
Besides the sightings, the book covers the U.S. government's official studies of sightings, especially their shifting levels of interest in the subject. The distinct impression I got was the government looked into the matter, couldn't find an explanation for everything but also couldn't find any threats that needed to be addressed. Since the Air Force and intelligence agencies are responsible for national defense, the persistence of UFOs became a nuisance to those agencies. The matter should have long ago been put into the hands of scientists and other academics. Government interest only finally started to increase in recent years because of the increased likelihood that some of these sightings are advanced foreign terrestrial aerial vehicles.
Scientists and the study of the cosmos (ex: SETI) is also a major part of the book - I think moreso than usual for books on the subject. Psychology is also brought in, although mostly regarding the eccentric John E. Mack and his study of alleged abductees. J. Allen Hynek, Carl Sagan, and a host of other colorful characters make their appearance. A few, like Stanton Friedman, get surprisingly few mentions.
Study of UFOs outside the USA is tangential but addressed - mostly in the Soviet Union during the Cold War and in France - primarily as a matter of comparison with US activities and discussion of interaction between American and Soviet scientists.
Two particular conclusions I drew from this book:
1. UFOs/UAP are worthy of continued study precisely because so many of them have or may have mundane explanations. If people who should know better can't identify balloons, aerial refueling tanker aircraft, flares, or Venus for what they really are it raises questions about training, witness reliability, and psychology especially at night. If we can't rely on what they think they see in the sky why should we rely on what they think they see on the ground? How we help people become more astute, discerning, accurate observers of everything?
The signal-to-noise ratio of UFO sightings is really bad and it hinders the efforts to meaningful study the extraordinary cases.
2. Our understanding of the possibility of UFOs as highly advanced technology, be it of terrestrial or extraterrestrial origin, and the search for other life in the galaxy, needs frequent recalibration due to scientific discoveries and advanced technology. In the 1960s, Carl Sagan observed that to our satellites of the time there was no evidence of advanced life here on Earth because the low resolution of their images. Yet 50 years later satellite imagery resolution has gone from 1 mile per pixel to 12 inches per pixel. We can't really imagine what we will be able to detect or observe in space 50 or 100 years from now, much less accurately predict the observational capabilities of aliens capable of interstellar travel. In an era with drones and increasingly advance unmanned space probes one wonders why aliens would visit Earth in person on reconnaissance missions - questions that would have seemed implausible decades ago. Yet the impossible maneuvers claimed by some sightings become more plausible if what was observed was an unmanned craft.
If you've never read a book about UFOs before, this is a great start, especially if you've been turned off by all the kooks and fanatics. If you're a very sporadic or lapsed reader on the subject this is also an excellent synthesis of the subject on a broad level. I'd put this at 4 1/2 stars and I thought about rounding down because I found some of the astronomy science a little dry, but upon further reflection this is such a standout for its approach to the topic that I'm rounding up.
I unexpectedly found this on the new non-fiction shelf at my public library. As a kid I was really fascinated by UFOs (and cryptozoology, but not ghosts; I was intrigued by the unknown natural, not the supernatural). As adult, studying history and historical research nearly destroyed my interest in those subjects because I came to understand how bad most of the sources were, how biased most of the writers were, and the amount of deliberate hoaxing and other lying (not the least of which being the revelations of Shockingly Close to the Truth : Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist). Conspiracy theories are driven by fundamental ignorance about human memory, burden of proof, and interrogation of evidence. Even in completely mundane history I've encountered people who very fervently believe things due to misreporting of the facts and/or that have first-hand or second-hand "knowledge" of events that simply never happened (misunderstanding, misremembering, or misinformed). And being severely nearsighted my entire life I have a great appreciation for the unreliability of the Mk. I eyeball.
Graff provides an overview of ufology since World War II. Most of the sightings are ones I am familiar with from long ago readings, but a few were new to me. Even the Navy's "tic tac" UFO sightings are addressed. None is explored in depth, but potential explanations are offered for most of them - all plausible and some almost certain. In some cases these explanations are from the 21st century.
Besides the sightings, the book covers the U.S. government's official studies of sightings, especially their shifting levels of interest in the subject. The distinct impression I got was the government looked into the matter, couldn't find an explanation for everything but also couldn't find any threats that needed to be addressed. Since the Air Force and intelligence agencies are responsible for national defense, the persistence of UFOs became a nuisance to those agencies. The matter should have long ago been put into the hands of scientists and other academics. Government interest only finally started to increase in recent years because of the increased likelihood that some of these sightings are advanced foreign terrestrial aerial vehicles.
Scientists and the study of the cosmos (ex: SETI) is also a major part of the book - I think moreso than usual for books on the subject. Psychology is also brought in, although mostly regarding the eccentric John E. Mack and his study of alleged abductees. J. Allen Hynek, Carl Sagan, and a host of other colorful characters make their appearance. A few, like Stanton Friedman, get surprisingly few mentions.
Study of UFOs outside the USA is tangential but addressed - mostly in the Soviet Union during the Cold War and in France - primarily as a matter of comparison with US activities and discussion of interaction between American and Soviet scientists.
Two particular conclusions I drew from this book:
1. UFOs/UAP are worthy of continued study precisely because so many of them have or may have mundane explanations. If people who should know better can't identify balloons, aerial refueling tanker aircraft, flares, or Venus for what they really are it raises questions about training, witness reliability, and psychology especially at night. If we can't rely on what they think they see in the sky why should we rely on what they think they see on the ground? How we help people become more astute, discerning, accurate observers of everything?
The signal-to-noise ratio of UFO sightings is really bad and it hinders the efforts to meaningful study the extraordinary cases.
2. Our understanding of the possibility of UFOs as highly advanced technology, be it of terrestrial or extraterrestrial origin, and the search for other life in the galaxy, needs frequent recalibration due to scientific discoveries and advanced technology. In the 1960s, Carl Sagan observed that to our satellites of the time there was no evidence of advanced life here on Earth because the low resolution of their images. Yet 50 years later satellite imagery resolution has gone from 1 mile per pixel to 12 inches per pixel. We can't really imagine what we will be able to detect or observe in space 50 or 100 years from now, much less accurately predict the observational capabilities of aliens capable of interstellar travel. In an era with drones and increasingly advance unmanned space probes one wonders why aliens would visit Earth in person on reconnaissance missions - questions that would have seemed implausible decades ago. Yet the impossible maneuvers claimed by some sightings become more plausible if what was observed was an unmanned craft.
If you've never read a book about UFOs before, this is a great start, especially if you've been turned off by all the kooks and fanatics. If you're a very sporadic or lapsed reader on the subject this is also an excellent synthesis of the subject on a broad level. I'd put this at 4 1/2 stars and I thought about rounding down because I found some of the astronomy science a little dry, but upon further reflection this is such a standout for its approach to the topic that I'm rounding up.
January 9, 2024
So appreciate the mix of hard and anecdotal evidence and the recognition that we may not be able to even comprehend what is out there. Thorough and well-researched, but still had hints of wonder (you know I love some nuance). The last line made me MAD though.
It took me like three months to read this (sad) so it really should not be counted in this year's total, but I'm doing it anyway.
It took me like three months to read this (sad) so it really should not be counted in this year's total, but I'm doing it anyway.
December 15, 2024
Garrett M. Graff's UFO offers an overview of America's obsession with "flying saucers" and extraterrestrial life from 1947 to the present. From Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting in June 1947 and the Roswell Crash shortly afterwards, UFOs and the existence of alien life quickly captured our imaginations, with thousands of sightings each year that generated a dizzingly dense folklore and mythology, sometimes echoed (when not created) by popular culture. Graff covers a few specific sightings and "events" in detail, but mostly focuses on investigators. From the early government investigators who suspected UFOs might be Soviet weapons or surveillance craft, to scientists J. Allen Hynek and Carl Sagan who helped legitimize the concept outside of crank circles, to some of the kookier figures (crashed saucer hoaxer Frank Scully, Men in Black crank Gray Barker, psychiatrist-turned-abduction advocate John Mack) who helped the phenomenon evolve. Graff shows that the best-covered events in ufology are so encrusted with legend and after-the-fact additions that it's often impossible to sort fact from fiction; Roswell, for instance, did not gain any serious attention until decades later, when the barebones of Jesse Martel's story became conflated with an old newspaper column reporting alien bodies - a column created as a joke. And the government's attitude - sometimes dismissive, often suspicious, rarely forthcoming - only stoked popular suspicions; after all, many UFOs were likely government planes, balloons or other projects. Scientists proved more openminded, but they could never agree whether the probable existence of alien life means they've actually visited Earth. From contactees to abductions, from SETI to The X-Files, most of it receives coverage. Little of the book will be new to veteran ufologists or paranormal buffs, but it's a very readable overview that's neither overly credulous nor unduly skeptical; an enjoyable dive into one of America's strangest cultural obsessions.
did-not-finish
March 30, 2025DNF/Skimmed
After about a hundred pages or so, I have to call it quits. It’s just not interesting enough a subject to me to want to invest my time reading 400+ pages about the cultural history of the UFO phenomenon, mostly in the U.S. The book is organized well and written well (though neither Mr. Graff nor his editors know the meaning of “disinterested,” evidenced by its constant misuse in the book). It’s a me problem, not a book problem. I just don’t care enough about UFOs to want to learn everything about them. I went ahead and skimmed the rest of the book.
*Reader’s Choice Nominee Spring 2025*
Language: Some strong language in quotes
Sexual Content: Claims of sex with aliens
Violence/Gore: Accidental deaths; not graphic
Harm to Animals:
Harm to Children:
Other (Triggers):
After about a hundred pages or so, I have to call it quits. It’s just not interesting enough a subject to me to want to invest my time reading 400+ pages about the cultural history of the UFO phenomenon, mostly in the U.S. The book is organized well and written well (though neither Mr. Graff nor his editors know the meaning of “disinterested,” evidenced by its constant misuse in the book). It’s a me problem, not a book problem. I just don’t care enough about UFOs to want to learn everything about them. I went ahead and skimmed the rest of the book.
*Reader’s Choice Nominee Spring 2025*
Language: Some strong language in quotes
Sexual Content: Claims of sex with aliens
Violence/Gore: Accidental deaths; not graphic
Harm to Animals:
Harm to Children:
Other (Triggers):
July 21, 2025
As a kid I was fascinated with UFOs and the staggering consequences they might hold, so this book was a welcome addition to my library. I don’t know if I’m too pragmatic to be fascinated by the topic anymore or if the facts that illuminate the mundanity of 99% of the “amazing events” I’d read about as a kid just killed the phenomenon, but apparently the truth is out there and it’s not all that incredible once you read the parts of the stories and events that were conveniently left out of the initial UFO reports. But regardless, an informative read.
April 28, 2024
An interesting book, but the science and military information sort of bogged me down. Probably a 3 1/2 star read.
March 13, 2024
This is my first book under my knew reading strategy for 2024. At all times, I’m reading a print book, a Kindle book, and an Audible book. I also hope to have a nonfiction book going, and I will read 100 pages between each print book.
This is the first nonfiction book resulting from this strategy. I read about 100 pages after each of my first three print books this year, then finished it after the fourth one. The reading proceeds a bit slowly this way, but it keeps me reading at least a bit of nonfiction. And I can always look back in my book if I forget something during the reading gaps.
This is a hard book to review. Graff presents a very good history of the UFO phenomenon, mostly as it has occurred in the US. Some of it was new to me and very interesting. But much of the book talks about UFO sightings and the various groups which may or may not have tracked UFO sightings over the last 70 years. Congressional, military, and other government committees have convened to discuss the UFO issue. MUFON and several other public groups have tracked UFO’s meticulously over this period. Many scientists have mostly condemned all sightings and the people who see them. Graff goes into great detail about who served on the many committees, who headed public groups, and which scientists believed what. When it’s all said and done, each government group basically found the same thing: no proof of UFO’s has ever been found and the group investigating is doing nothing to track UFO’s. Public groups have mostly been true believers in UFO’s. As I said, most scientists have been sceptics, although some have changed their opinions as they’ve studied sightings. In a number of cases over the years, military and intelligence groups have said they have no one studying UFO’s. This has often proven to be untrue when Congress or journalists probed more deeply.
I wasn’t surprised that Graff had no great revelations about extraterrestrial visitors. If he had revealed anything new, it would have made front page news around the world. But the book still provides some very interesting reading. In addition to providing an overall history of selected UFO reports over time, Graff goes deeply into the history of SETI. I have known about SETI for many years. Back in the early 1990’s, we even downloaded the screen saver and let SETI use our computer’s downtime to analyze their data. But I didn’t know the ins and outs of its history, nor did I realize that most of its funding now comes from a Russian entrepreneur.
Graff does a good job with the interests and personal experiences of Presidents Carter, Ford, Regan, Clinton, and Obama and their staffs with UFO’s. Again, no new revelations but very interesting history. All were at least curious. Several had personal experiences.
The tic tac incident is interesting and unsolved. A solved mystery was the Chinese balloon UFOs in 2023. Graff also seems to imply that these balloons are not the only examples of UFO’s in our skies coming from our enemies. I guess it is understandable that our military wouldn’t share information about downed foreign drones in our air space and possibly even in our oceans.
There are many pages about the Roswell incident and all the government reports which seek to prove that nothing other worldly was involved. I enjoyed watching the government’s position slowly emerge from it’s a saucer crash to a weather balloon to dummies dropped from balloons from high in the sky over New Mexico in ejection seat tests. Although I became convinced that the Roswell mystery is probably now solved, it was amazing how long it took the government to come clean.
In the end, Graff leaves it that the government may well know far more about UFO’s than it has told us so far. He makes it clear that he will keep digging as will a number of other trusted journalists and scientists. He has little hope that the government is on the verge of telling all it knows. So I guess we, the interested public, will have to wait…..And watch the sky!
This is the first nonfiction book resulting from this strategy. I read about 100 pages after each of my first three print books this year, then finished it after the fourth one. The reading proceeds a bit slowly this way, but it keeps me reading at least a bit of nonfiction. And I can always look back in my book if I forget something during the reading gaps.
This is a hard book to review. Graff presents a very good history of the UFO phenomenon, mostly as it has occurred in the US. Some of it was new to me and very interesting. But much of the book talks about UFO sightings and the various groups which may or may not have tracked UFO sightings over the last 70 years. Congressional, military, and other government committees have convened to discuss the UFO issue. MUFON and several other public groups have tracked UFO’s meticulously over this period. Many scientists have mostly condemned all sightings and the people who see them. Graff goes into great detail about who served on the many committees, who headed public groups, and which scientists believed what. When it’s all said and done, each government group basically found the same thing: no proof of UFO’s has ever been found and the group investigating is doing nothing to track UFO’s. Public groups have mostly been true believers in UFO’s. As I said, most scientists have been sceptics, although some have changed their opinions as they’ve studied sightings. In a number of cases over the years, military and intelligence groups have said they have no one studying UFO’s. This has often proven to be untrue when Congress or journalists probed more deeply.
I wasn’t surprised that Graff had no great revelations about extraterrestrial visitors. If he had revealed anything new, it would have made front page news around the world. But the book still provides some very interesting reading. In addition to providing an overall history of selected UFO reports over time, Graff goes deeply into the history of SETI. I have known about SETI for many years. Back in the early 1990’s, we even downloaded the screen saver and let SETI use our computer’s downtime to analyze their data. But I didn’t know the ins and outs of its history, nor did I realize that most of its funding now comes from a Russian entrepreneur.
Graff does a good job with the interests and personal experiences of Presidents Carter, Ford, Regan, Clinton, and Obama and their staffs with UFO’s. Again, no new revelations but very interesting history. All were at least curious. Several had personal experiences.
The tic tac incident is interesting and unsolved. A solved mystery was the Chinese balloon UFOs in 2023. Graff also seems to imply that these balloons are not the only examples of UFO’s in our skies coming from our enemies. I guess it is understandable that our military wouldn’t share information about downed foreign drones in our air space and possibly even in our oceans.
There are many pages about the Roswell incident and all the government reports which seek to prove that nothing other worldly was involved. I enjoyed watching the government’s position slowly emerge from it’s a saucer crash to a weather balloon to dummies dropped from balloons from high in the sky over New Mexico in ejection seat tests. Although I became convinced that the Roswell mystery is probably now solved, it was amazing how long it took the government to come clean.
In the end, Graff leaves it that the government may well know far more about UFO’s than it has told us so far. He makes it clear that he will keep digging as will a number of other trusted journalists and scientists. He has little hope that the government is on the verge of telling all it knows. So I guess we, the interested public, will have to wait…..And watch the sky!
July 14, 2025
i liked when carl sagan compared the likelihood of aliens noticing earth to me seeing a mosquito 25 feet away because sometimes i just need to be reminded that my problems are insignificant 🤓😴
August 31, 2024
Given the reviews, I was expecting to have a hard time putting this down. Instead, its encyclopedia like cataloguing of every incident ever makes it a drag - it was so boring most of the time with only a few short bits that held some tension. I stopped reading.
February 3, 2025
Pretty interesting!
Read
January 9, 2024Graff presents a very reasoned, open-minded history of the UFO story. It starts with Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast and ranges far afield. All the major sightings are discussed, as well as alien abductions, cattle mutilation and crop circles. The field of radio telescopes and listening to the sounds of space for sign of life is covered in depth. This is a world history since UFOs have been reported everywhere. He debunks when debunking is necessary but perhaps the most impressive thing about Graff's book is the sensitivity with which he treats astronomers who have devoted their lives to the search for extraterrestrial life. All of them have suffered the rejection of their peers for being nutty. Graff observes that and gives them their due. As a life-long non-believer I can say his book has shifted my view of their vocation.
October 26, 2024
Good history of where we are with UFO investigation. However no new revelations for me. Im interested in the subject being my Grandpa worked for “Project Blue Book” in the Air Force. Also i was born in the same state as the infamous Roswell crash & there are many family stories of sightings (i myself had a weird whitley strieber like experience.). My crack-pot theory: ufo & aliens are actually demons, masquerading as aliens. The Enemy trying to confuse us. There is something strange out there, i dont dispute that. Not weather balloons. But i think terrestrial in origin, the seemingly advanced technology derived from Diabolic knowledge. The “greys” aliens resemble the frog like demons excorcised in illuminated manuscripts. Perhaps the “prince of the power of the air.” - Ephesians 2:2, might have ability zip around in shiny disc like crafts too fool us.
July 10, 2024
Maybe it was my own bias, but going into this book I expected it to focus more on the actual UFO phenomenon and go through a lot of the famous cases. Instead it was really focused on the government programs themselves that studied UFOs over the last century. When famous UFO incidents were brought up, they were usually only a page or so summaries, which felt lacking to me.
It was very well researched and written, but IMO a bit dry at times. There’s only so many ways you can make congressional spending and budget history interesting, even if it’s about UFOs. Overall it was a good read for someone interested in the subject, but it struggled to keep my attention.
It was very well researched and written, but IMO a bit dry at times. There’s only so many ways you can make congressional spending and budget history interesting, even if it’s about UFOs. Overall it was a good read for someone interested in the subject, but it struggled to keep my attention.
September 11, 2024
3.85/5. It took a minute to finish this one since it’s pretty weighty and since I’m reading a couple of other books. I enjoyed Graff’s previous book ‘Raven Rock,’ and this was similarly intriguing and thoroughly researched. The title will probably cause some to scoff, but the book is a much more serious and wide-ranging history than you’d expect. I really enjoyed the sections on astronomy and SETI, but those on Project Blue Book and the associated time period got a bit sloggy and bogged down. Overall, the book could’ve been a bit tighter — that said, it’s a great read for anyone interested in the subject.
January 3, 2024
This is a very in-depth, eye-opening look at the history of UFO sightings and our response to them. I've never really thought much about UFOs before and only read this book because I liked Graff's "Watergate," but I'm glad I read it.
Which do you think would be more astounding, that in the incomprehensible vastness of the universe there are other intelligent life forms? Or that we are alone?
Which do you think would be more astounding, that in the incomprehensible vastness of the universe there are other intelligent life forms? Or that we are alone?
May 21, 2025
Everything you ever wanted to know about UFOs, UAPs, Flying Saucers, 🛸 flying tic tacs, and more… up to 2023.
Talk about researched! Well done, easy to follow, laid out chronologically.
For a true believer… maybe it is the anticipation?
Talk about researched! Well done, easy to follow, laid out chronologically.
For a true believer… maybe it is the anticipation?
Currently reading
November 19, 2023Currently Reading
December 1, 2023
A very in depth (500+ pages) look at how our government has studied (or not studied) UFOs the past 100 years. Highly recommend this non-fiction read for science lovers.
January 9, 2024
I definitely was more interested in the more modern aspects of SETI, the beginning felt a bit drawn out but it was an interesting look at unidentified objects in the sky.
April 26, 2024
Fun and fascinating. Also a great book to carry around and read in public because of the odd looks and questions.
August 20, 2025
tu są takie ciekawostki i cała historia ufo poukładana chronologicznie i spójnie, że aż żałuję, że ma tylko 700stron
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