What do you think?
Rate this book
The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America
“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.
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.
322 pages, Hardcover
First published August 26, 2025
200 people are currently reading
2249 people want to read
About the author
David Baron
3 books62 followersDavid Baron is an award-winning journalist and author who writes about science, nature, and the American West. Formerly a science correspondent for NPR and science editor for the public radio program The World, he has also written for The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, and other publications. While conducting research for his latest book, THE MARTIANS, he served as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation. David is an avid eclipse chaser, and his TED Talk on the subject has been viewed more than 2 million times. An affiliate of the University of Colorado’s Center for Environmental Journalism, he lives in Boulder.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
November 8, 2025
Crazes..............they seem to come and go and this book takes on one of the most widespread and longest lasting. It swept like wildfire across many countries but seemed most prevalent in the United States. It divided people of all classes and professions and in the process ruined the reputations of many. It began right before the turn of the 20th century when astronomy was becoming more sophisticated and gazing at Earth's closest neighboring planet, Mars, was popular. Author H.G. Wells published The War of the World which was a huge success and the craze began.
Of course, the subject of this fascinating book is the belief in the "canals" of Mars and the presence of life on the Red Planet. One individual (who had no scientific training), Percy Lowelll, a wealthy Bostonian, became obsessed with this subject, built his own planetarium, and "discovered" the supposed canals. This led him to put forth the theory that only intelligent beings could have built these canals. The "yellow journalists (Pulitzer and Hearst) picked up this theory and milked it for all it was worth. with blazing front page headlines such as "Life On Mars Discovered". Lowell was either loved or hated for his theory and astronomers began attempting to debunk it.
What a story this is...........beautifully written, great source material, and full of information that will keep the reader interested from page one. There is just too much to put in a review, so I highly recommend this book. It is a fun read but also somewhat poignant.
Of course, the subject of this fascinating book is the belief in the "canals" of Mars and the presence of life on the Red Planet. One individual (who had no scientific training), Percy Lowelll, a wealthy Bostonian, became obsessed with this subject, built his own planetarium, and "discovered" the supposed canals. This led him to put forth the theory that only intelligent beings could have built these canals. The "yellow journalists (Pulitzer and Hearst) picked up this theory and milked it for all it was worth. with blazing front page headlines such as "Life On Mars Discovered". Lowell was either loved or hated for his theory and astronomers began attempting to debunk it.
What a story this is...........beautifully written, great source material, and full of information that will keep the reader interested from page one. There is just too much to put in a review, so I highly recommend this book. It is a fun read but also somewhat poignant.
Read
July 25, 2025Just a superb book about the history of Martians, the observations of the planet. The book focuses mainly on US pseudo astronomer Percival Lowell and his mapping of the Red Planet. Thanks to Lowell generations grew up thinking there were Canals on the planet, which in turn led to the idea that there were human like creatures who inhabited Mars, and that the canals were used to grow vegetation to feed the Martians, Lowell spend years observing the planet, and Tesla also got involved at one point in time trying to contact the planet. It is wonderfully researched and we get into the "yellow press", the building of bigger and better telescopes, H.G. Wells and his War of the Worlds book and how it was adapted for readers in New York & Boston when it came out in the 1890's. Yes, a true tour de force on our obsession with Mars, Martians, etc. This one is a fast read and one that is for me a true 5*****!!!
February 4, 2026
Let’s get this out of the way: this book is an objectively great work of historical science journalism. The author dives deep into the forgotten Martian craze of the early 20th century, when many in the scientific community truly believed there was evidence of life on Mars. There were some super interesting tidbits in here, and the topic is worthy of this level of exploration. So why the three-star rating? It’s purely a me thing. I overestimated how interested I was in this topic, and probably would have had a better time with an article or podcast episode than with a proper deep dive like this one. I think real history buffs will love this!
August 10, 2025
The Martians is a lyrical account of the Mars craze that sweeped the turn of the 20th century. From the perspectives of scientists, engineers, and visionaries with plenty of sensationalized journalism mixed in, this book provides an interesting lens into Earth's closest neighbor and the obsession that came from it.
Want to read
August 23, 2025WSJ review: https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/book...
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"Lowell’s depictions of Martian life were pure fantasy, but they appealed to the public. ...
Lowell’s wild conjectures inspired the rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard, the science-fiction pioneer Hugo Gernsback and the astronomer Carl Sagan. Ray Bradbury, whose books include “The Martian Chronicles” (1950), paid homage to the likes of Lowell in a 1971 interview: “I think it’s part of the nature of man to start with romance and build to a reality. There’s hardly a scientist or an astronaut I’ve met who wasn’t beholden to some romantic before him who led him to doing something in life.”
I plan to take a look, when our libraries get a copy.
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"Lowell’s depictions of Martian life were pure fantasy, but they appealed to the public. ...
Lowell’s wild conjectures inspired the rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard, the science-fiction pioneer Hugo Gernsback and the astronomer Carl Sagan. Ray Bradbury, whose books include “The Martian Chronicles” (1950), paid homage to the likes of Lowell in a 1971 interview: “I think it’s part of the nature of man to start with romance and build to a reality. There’s hardly a scientist or an astronaut I’ve met who wasn’t beholden to some romantic before him who led him to doing something in life.”
I plan to take a look, when our libraries get a copy.
December 30, 2025
This book is a history of what the author dubs the Mars craze. For about two decades starting just before the 20th Century, Mars was treated as inhabited. This is due in part (but not in whole) to Schiaparelli's observations, the story of which is better known than the general mania that followed.
For those years, the topic of the intelligent life on Mars was treated as conventional wisdom, and Mars and martians (once it was decided on what to call them) was treated both as accepted scientific marvel of the era and cultural product, spawning comics, plays, jokes, and other material.
At the center of this fad is Percival Lowell, amateur anthropologist turned amateur astronomer, with two streams of textile wealth (pay no attention to those picking the cotton) in his family to fund his adventures in founding astronomic institutions and explorations.
...except that it was a consensus that also was not. There never was as much of a scientific agreement with Lowell as to his observations, nor is it Lowell as the sort of lonely mis-translator that the story gets reduced to, as there were other supporters, both scientific and wackadoodle, seeing an inhabited Mars. So it is a weird situation: there is consensus without consensus.
The book reads much as a biography of Lowell, with the author injecting his own personal experiences and the tale of his investigation along the way. This does not work. To address the latter, the conclusion of the book focuses on the long tail of this enthusiasm and its positive effects in inspiring many different people towards art, science, and engineering. This journalism with internal narrativecan work, but here it does not do anything. It is not bad; it is not good.
As to the former, a focus on Lowell seems to miss the relevance of the cultural history. Real history refutes narrative, usually, so it is understandable that the culture's turn away from Lowell is not necessarily a thing of meaning, but such an understanding is not ever proposed or considered. There is a scholar who seems to come in with the last word, but I did not understand why he had the last word.
I am frustrated by it. The history is neat in its revelation of a cultural shift then reversal that we still see the legacy of each time aliens have antenna. But this is a highly relevant moment for the contemporary world. Bad science won out, then lost. How that happened is interesting as a cultural study but also as a practical matter of how to fight the anti-science perspective of the current U.S. administration. Instead, the book is more interested in personality.
The press was deeply convinced of this rightness of Martian civilization, then as quickly convinced of the silliness of it. That is the book I wanted to read. Instead, it serves up a sort of consolation prize, that we at least get some good ideas coming from the bad ones. I do not buy that.
Some sort of question of the NTD to RFK ratio...well, it is not silly, but it is dismissable as not a useful quantification. But I think that a lot got left on the table here in an attempt to understand the way that culture processes science information, and what this particularly outsized event might be able to tell us about that. And while I know that I cannot fault a book for what it is not, the fact that the argument could correlate to something like sure, COVID denial killed a lot of people in '20, and lead to the plague decade, but it got a lot of people into medicine, and someone made some neat art tracing measles rash, is, maybe, not the sort of thing that I can get too excited about.
Lots of great information, but I want a more serious study of the process of the cultural event.
For those years, the topic of the intelligent life on Mars was treated as conventional wisdom, and Mars and martians (once it was decided on what to call them) was treated both as accepted scientific marvel of the era and cultural product, spawning comics, plays, jokes, and other material.
At the center of this fad is Percival Lowell, amateur anthropologist turned amateur astronomer, with two streams of textile wealth (pay no attention to those picking the cotton) in his family to fund his adventures in founding astronomic institutions and explorations.
...except that it was a consensus that also was not. There never was as much of a scientific agreement with Lowell as to his observations, nor is it Lowell as the sort of lonely mis-translator that the story gets reduced to, as there were other supporters, both scientific and wackadoodle, seeing an inhabited Mars. So it is a weird situation: there is consensus without consensus.
The book reads much as a biography of Lowell, with the author injecting his own personal experiences and the tale of his investigation along the way. This does not work. To address the latter, the conclusion of the book focuses on the long tail of this enthusiasm and its positive effects in inspiring many different people towards art, science, and engineering. This journalism with internal narrativecan work, but here it does not do anything. It is not bad; it is not good.
As to the former, a focus on Lowell seems to miss the relevance of the cultural history. Real history refutes narrative, usually, so it is understandable that the culture's turn away from Lowell is not necessarily a thing of meaning, but such an understanding is not ever proposed or considered. There is a scholar who seems to come in with the last word, but I did not understand why he had the last word.
I am frustrated by it. The history is neat in its revelation of a cultural shift then reversal that we still see the legacy of each time aliens have antenna. But this is a highly relevant moment for the contemporary world. Bad science won out, then lost. How that happened is interesting as a cultural study but also as a practical matter of how to fight the anti-science perspective of the current U.S. administration. Instead, the book is more interested in personality.
The press was deeply convinced of this rightness of Martian civilization, then as quickly convinced of the silliness of it. That is the book I wanted to read. Instead, it serves up a sort of consolation prize, that we at least get some good ideas coming from the bad ones. I do not buy that.
Some sort of question of the NTD to RFK ratio...well, it is not silly, but it is dismissable as not a useful quantification. But I think that a lot got left on the table here in an attempt to understand the way that culture processes science information, and what this particularly outsized event might be able to tell us about that. And while I know that I cannot fault a book for what it is not, the fact that the argument could correlate to something like sure, COVID denial killed a lot of people in '20, and lead to the plague decade, but it got a lot of people into medicine, and someone made some neat art tracing measles rash, is, maybe, not the sort of thing that I can get too excited about.
Lots of great information, but I want a more serious study of the process of the cultural event.
June 27, 2025
Book Review: The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America by David Baron
David Baron’s The Martians is a captivating excavation of a forgotten cultural moment when America collectively hallucinated intelligent life on Mars—and in doing so, revealed more about human nature than extraterrestrial reality. As a woman and scholar of science communication, I was struck by how Baron frames this historical episode not as mere pseudoscientific folly, but as a lens for examining societal anxieties, class dynamics, and the seductive power of narrative. The book’s central figure, Percival Lowell—the aristocratic astronomer whose “canal” theories ignited Mars mania—emerges as a tragic emblem of how privilege can amplify speculative ideas, while the public’s fervent embrace of Martians (from Broadway shows to Nikola Tesla’s radio claims) exposes our timeless hunger for cosmic connection.
What resonated most deeply was Baron’s nuanced portrayal of gendered skepticism in the scientific backlash. While male critics like Alfred Russel Wallace dismantled Lowell’s theories with empirical rigor, Baron subtly highlights how women astronomers (like Williamina Fleming) were simultaneously making groundbreaking discoveries yet excluded from the Mars discourse—a tension I wished he’d explored further. The chapters detailing Lowell’s Atacama expedition and its sensationalized “proof” of canals evoked visceral frustration; I found myself aching for the marginalized voices (Indigenous Chileans, female scientists) sidelined in this Eurocentric quest. Baron’s prose, however, is masterful—equal parts wry and empathetic, transforming historical figures into flawed, fully human characters.
Structurally, the book occasionally struggles to balance its dual aims: a biography of Lowell and a cultural history of Mars mania. The middle sections linger on technical debates about telescopic optics, which, while academically rigorous, dilute the emotional momentum. A deeper analysis of how race and imperialism shaped Martian fantasies (e.g., the utopian society trope echoing colonial myths) would have strengthened Baron’s critique of projection as a cultural reflex. Still, his closing meditation on modern Mars colonization dreams—and their eerie parallels to Lowell’s era—left me chilled with recognition.
Strengths:
-Cultural Archaeology: Brilliantly contextualizes Mars mania within Gilded Age anxieties and scientific theater.
-Narrative Craft: Baron’s journalistic flair turns complex astronomy into page-turning drama.
-Provocative Parallels: Draws urgent lines between past delusions and present-day space rhetoric.
Critiques:
-Intersectional Gaps: Underdeveloped analysis of how gender/race shaped participation in and resistance to Mars narratives.
-Pacing Issues: Technical digressions disrupt the thematic flow in later chapters.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5) – A dazzling but imperfect work that illuminates how our cosmic fantasies reveal earthly biases.
Thank you to W. W. Norton and Edelweiss for providing a free advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Final Thought: Baron’s greatest achievement is showing how Mars has always been a Rorschach test. As we today dream of terraforming it, The Martians warns: beware the stories we tell about red planets—they’re usually about us.
David Baron’s The Martians is a captivating excavation of a forgotten cultural moment when America collectively hallucinated intelligent life on Mars—and in doing so, revealed more about human nature than extraterrestrial reality. As a woman and scholar of science communication, I was struck by how Baron frames this historical episode not as mere pseudoscientific folly, but as a lens for examining societal anxieties, class dynamics, and the seductive power of narrative. The book’s central figure, Percival Lowell—the aristocratic astronomer whose “canal” theories ignited Mars mania—emerges as a tragic emblem of how privilege can amplify speculative ideas, while the public’s fervent embrace of Martians (from Broadway shows to Nikola Tesla’s radio claims) exposes our timeless hunger for cosmic connection.
What resonated most deeply was Baron’s nuanced portrayal of gendered skepticism in the scientific backlash. While male critics like Alfred Russel Wallace dismantled Lowell’s theories with empirical rigor, Baron subtly highlights how women astronomers (like Williamina Fleming) were simultaneously making groundbreaking discoveries yet excluded from the Mars discourse—a tension I wished he’d explored further. The chapters detailing Lowell’s Atacama expedition and its sensationalized “proof” of canals evoked visceral frustration; I found myself aching for the marginalized voices (Indigenous Chileans, female scientists) sidelined in this Eurocentric quest. Baron’s prose, however, is masterful—equal parts wry and empathetic, transforming historical figures into flawed, fully human characters.
Structurally, the book occasionally struggles to balance its dual aims: a biography of Lowell and a cultural history of Mars mania. The middle sections linger on technical debates about telescopic optics, which, while academically rigorous, dilute the emotional momentum. A deeper analysis of how race and imperialism shaped Martian fantasies (e.g., the utopian society trope echoing colonial myths) would have strengthened Baron’s critique of projection as a cultural reflex. Still, his closing meditation on modern Mars colonization dreams—and their eerie parallels to Lowell’s era—left me chilled with recognition.
Strengths:
-Cultural Archaeology: Brilliantly contextualizes Mars mania within Gilded Age anxieties and scientific theater.
-Narrative Craft: Baron’s journalistic flair turns complex astronomy into page-turning drama.
-Provocative Parallels: Draws urgent lines between past delusions and present-day space rhetoric.
Critiques:
-Intersectional Gaps: Underdeveloped analysis of how gender/race shaped participation in and resistance to Mars narratives.
-Pacing Issues: Technical digressions disrupt the thematic flow in later chapters.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5) – A dazzling but imperfect work that illuminates how our cosmic fantasies reveal earthly biases.
Thank you to W. W. Norton and Edelweiss for providing a free advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Final Thought: Baron’s greatest achievement is showing how Mars has always been a Rorschach test. As we today dream of terraforming it, The Martians warns: beware the stories we tell about red planets—they’re usually about us.
November 29, 2025
In the 1890s, the wealthy Percival Lowell turned his attention to astronomy and changed the public perception of the planet Mars for decades to come. Untrained in the sciences, Lowell's money and charisma nevertheless brought him attention from the scientific community and the general population; he posited that the "canals" he claimed to see on the red planet through his telescope were evidence of intelligent life on Mars. While many scientists scoffed, and while Lowell's claims would eventually be debunked, the Martian craze would spark the imagination of writers like H.G. Wells and ignite the passion of space exploration throughout the twentieth century.
This book was really fascinating! I enjoyed this author's book about the 1878 solar eclipse and this one is written in a similar vein: a melding of history and astronomy, woven together in a compelling narrative. I think I might have followed this a little better if I'd read the book (there were enough unfamiliar people and events that it wasn't the easiest to follow on audio), but audio is the way I get through books lately; this was still definitely worth listening to.
I was captivated by the idea of this pseudo-scientist being led by confirmation bias to the conclusions he wanted (it rings eerily true of current events; I was reminded of the way ivermectin was the miracle cure for COVID or the MAHA push to tie autism to vaccines or Tylenol). But just as I was ready to dismiss Lowell as a blight on scientific history, the author convinced me in the epilogue that maybe a little bit of imagination in the sciences isn't all bad; maybe it inspires a future generation of scientists.
At any rate, I appreciated learning the history behind the man behind the Lowell Observatory -- I've been there!
I know that everyone out there has already read The Martian, but maybe it's time to also pick up The Martians!
This book was really fascinating! I enjoyed this author's book about the 1878 solar eclipse and this one is written in a similar vein: a melding of history and astronomy, woven together in a compelling narrative. I think I might have followed this a little better if I'd read the book (there were enough unfamiliar people and events that it wasn't the easiest to follow on audio), but audio is the way I get through books lately; this was still definitely worth listening to.
I was captivated by the idea of this pseudo-scientist being led by confirmation bias to the conclusions he wanted (it rings eerily true of current events; I was reminded of the way ivermectin was the miracle cure for COVID or the MAHA push to tie autism to vaccines or Tylenol). But just as I was ready to dismiss Lowell as a blight on scientific history, the author convinced me in the epilogue that maybe a little bit of imagination in the sciences isn't all bad; maybe it inspires a future generation of scientists.
At any rate, I appreciated learning the history behind the man behind the Lowell Observatory -- I've been there!
I know that everyone out there has already read The Martian, but maybe it's time to also pick up The Martians!
February 1, 2026
"The Martians" offers an engaging look into the early 20th-century obsession with the Red Planet, though its focus shifts unexpectedly. What begins as a cultural study of American fascination with Mars eventually evolves into a pseudo-biography of Martian astronomers like Percival Lowell, Nikola Tesla, and Giovanni Schiaparelli. While the author acknowledges this pivot in the epilogue, the transition feels a bit disjointed. However, as an educator, I found the historical context invaluable. It’s a quick, enjoyable read that serves as a fantastic case study on how confirmation bias can turn speculative science into popular propaganda.
December 5, 2025
Before reading I knew about the Martian "canal" theory, but I had no idea just how much of a Mars-mania that it produced during this time period. Baron's book is a compelling read into the scientific and cultural history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The author doesn't just get into why people believed what they did about Mars and potential intelligent Martian life, he dives into the psychological and cultural reasons for why they wanted to believe it. Overall, The Martians is an entertaining and informative read about a phenomenon that I was previously ignorant of.
August 27, 2025
What a crazy story! I had no idea that in the years around 1900, many folks were convinced that Martians existed, led by the persuasive Percival Lowell. And a strong nonfiction book like this one leads me to add many more books to my TBR! Looking forward to meeting the author & getting this book autographed at the National Book Festival.
January 20, 2026
an easy read, albeit occasionally florid. more so a biography of percival lowell, who pushed the theory that mars was inhabitable to the spotlight. kind of a tragic tale! vivid details from the archive b the author could exercise better discretion. not something that’ll stick w me
December 20, 2025
If you ever wondered why so many people thought the broadcast of War of the Worlds was real, read this and you will understand. A riveting must-read!
April 21, 2025
This is a sprawling narrative (covering decades and involving such intriguing people as H.G. Wells & Nikola Tesla!) focused on how the bold claims of one Percival Lowell (that Mars held intelligent life), spread so far and wide in popular culture. It was fascinating to read about this hoax, and see just how many people got drawn into the argument. This all might have happened ages ago, but this 'Martian myth' read as very modern.
The conclusion of the book was a little more hopeful than the overall narrative, showing that despite Lowell's false claims, his work DID inspire others in the future to study & explore Mars.
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book.
The conclusion of the book was a little more hopeful than the overall narrative, showing that despite Lowell's false claims, his work DID inspire others in the future to study & explore Mars.
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book.
September 10, 2025
Interesting story, but disappointed by the audio narration. The book focuses heavily on Percival Lowell’s research on Mars and everyone’s fascination with the potential of Martian life. However, more interesting is the underlying story of the power of wanting to believe something so badly that it leads to closed mindedness even in the face of scientific evidence.
October 3, 2025
This was a fun look back at the evolving landscape of extraterrestrial beliefs. My major takeaway was a reminder that science does not always evolve linearly, but in fits and starts and some backpedaling.
It is interesting to see how cultural mindsets can impact the interpretation of scientific data, and often even the questions and theories being tested. The dawn of the era of marketing and advertising further stoked interest. It was thought-provoking to reflect upon how the lens through which Americans were likely filtered through more terrestrial but unfamiliar Korean landscapes and Algerian topography, etc. There is a sadly recurring theme about human degradation that is touched upon, with the "American" craze and beliefs being influenced by regressive opinions about fellow earthlings.
It is interesting to see how cultural mindsets can impact the interpretation of scientific data, and often even the questions and theories being tested. The dawn of the era of marketing and advertising further stoked interest. It was thought-provoking to reflect upon how the lens through which Americans were likely filtered through more terrestrial but unfamiliar Korean landscapes and Algerian topography, etc. There is a sadly recurring theme about human degradation that is touched upon, with the "American" craze and beliefs being influenced by regressive opinions about fellow earthlings.
February 8, 2026
An interesting and indepth telling of a forgotten time in history. I was intrigued by the title and found the tale of passion and hubris held my attention in a surprising way. Looking back at the end on the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, we can feel like smarter beings. Yet, it is only through the innovations and scientific imagings of the people before us that we came to this point. The many scientific accomplishments and famous scientific adventurers woven into the true tales in this book are astounding. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the history of astronomy, or in the history of the late 19th/ early 20th century.
January 7, 2026
I have had a tough time reading nonfiction for a while. I was beginning to think it was somehow my fault as if I no longer had the capacity to understand such books. However, having read David Baron's excellent work, I now realize that my recent forays into nonfiction were, most likely, poorly written works about uninteresting topics. I devoured this book in a couple of days and understood everything it had to offer due to its fascinating thesis and well-written prose. I am now looking forward to discovering and reading new works of nonfiction while remembering that some books are just better than others.
January 30, 2026
A fantastic micro history about how the idea of Martian life flourished in America. Very hard to put down every time I had to do so. If you are at all interested in how we came to fall in love with the idea of alien on other planets, I very much recommend this title.
February 15, 2026
I love the subject matter: aliens, space, the birth of sci-fi (the xenophobia and othering of people at the core), yellow journalism, confirmation bias, the hope for something grand out there! Truly, there’s a lot of potential in this book and a lot of interesting concepts that could have benefitted from a stronger stance from the author. As it stands, he muddles through the canal debate with an awkward writing style and shies away from digging further into the societal backdrop that’s being established in the turn of the century that’s still playing out 120 years later.
February 6, 2026
If you are in need of a book that will put you to sleep look no further.
September 21, 2025
What an interesting read. Martians, Martians everywhere. And they propagated without the use of social media or the internets, but they went viral nonetheless. Our great-grandparents sure did live in interesting times.
Want to know why Martians always have big heads and antennae? Read this book. Want to learn how tabloid journalism got its start? Read this book. Want to meet the forefathers of Sci-Fi? You get the idea, just read this book. It's guaranteed to take you out of this world. You won't be disappointed.
Want to know why Martians always have big heads and antennae? Read this book. Want to learn how tabloid journalism got its start? Read this book. Want to meet the forefathers of Sci-Fi? You get the idea, just read this book. It's guaranteed to take you out of this world. You won't be disappointed.
September 18, 2025
This might have been a very interesting read with a plethora of fascinating characters - Marconi, Tesla, etc - but the narration on the audiobook is just awful. Words are mispronounced (engine-oo for ingenue, for example). There is unnecessary, borderline offensive stereotypical Italian/Irish/British accents performed for no logical reason. I listened to the rest of the audiobook so fast hoping that it would get better but I should have just made this a DNF.
August 8, 2025
It is an inspiring epic of human inventiveness. It is a cautionary tale of mass delusion. It is a drama of battling egos. Ultimately, though, it is a love story, an account of when we, the people of Earth, fell hard for another planet and projected our fantasies, desires and ambitions onto an alien world. [Introduction]
This is an account of Percival Lowell's obsession with the planet Mars, and its profound consequences for the human race. Following the observations of Schiaparelli -- who described a network of long straight lines on the planet, 'canali' (channels, but mistranslated as 'canals') -- Lowell, a wealthy businessman, published a number of books about his observations and his interpretation of them. He also founded the Lowell Observatory, and inspired a generation of scientists and science fiction authors.
The first part of the book, 'Century's End - 1876-1900', recounts Lowell's early life, and the context in which his astronomical work was received: his first books were published in the 1890s, in a period where science and technology were celebrated. Several reputable figures had asserted that life was not only possible but probable on other planets, and there was much discussion -- in parallel with the fashion for spiritualism -- about how to communicate with the inhabitants of our nearest neighbour. Nikola Tesla was convinced that his work in 'wireless telegraphy' (radio) would enable him to signal Mars.
In the second section, 'A New Civilization - 1901-1907', the sense of the limitless possibilities of the new century is strong. Mars became fashionable: everything from stage plays to dance tunes, advertising, and a plethora of stories in the popular press. (Meanwhile in London, Edward Maunder, an assistant at the Royal Observatory, conducted a study at the Royal Hospital School in Greenwich, showing that schoolboys perceived straight lines on images of Mars if seated at a certain distance from the pictures. Closer, and they could distinguish the lines and curves that made up those 'straight lines': further away and it was all a blur.)
The third section, 'The Earthlings Respond - 1908-1916', describes the waning of popular enthusiasm for Lowell's ideas -- although he continued his lecture tours until his death in 1916, maintaining that "the difficulty in establishing the fact that Mars is inhabited lies not in the lack of intelligence on Mars, but rather the lack of it here." What he lacked in scientific rigour, he made up for in sheer stubborn belief.
Baron's epilogue, 'Children of Mars', celebrates Lowell's legacy. He suggests that the reason the American public were so ready to believe that Orson Welles' radio production of The War of the Worlds was real news was that many could remember all the newspaper reports about life on Mars. And, more importantly, 'intelligent eyes really had been watching human affairs keenly and closely': not aliens but children* who grew up hearing stories and theories about other worlds. A young man in Luxembourg was enthralled by Lowell's Mars: his name was Hugo Gernsback, and he is regarded as a key figure in the rise of science fiction as a genre. H P Lovecraft attended one of Lowell's lectures aged 16; H G Wells met Lowell and discussed Mars with him (this fact established by Baron's own research); and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars featured canals, deserts and dry lakes, just as Lowell had suggested. Burroughs' Barsoom, in turn, inspired another generation of writers and scientists, including Carl Sagan, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C Clarke.
This was a great read, full of fascinating detail and copious illustrations. Baron's authorial voice is unobtrusive: his accounts of his research expeditions are interesting but very much secondary to the main narrative. There's a good bibliography and extensive references. And I did like his conclusion:
... I thought I had set out to tell a tale of human folly, about how easy it is to deceive ourselves into believing things simply because we wish them to be true... I discovered another, perhaps more powerful takeaway: Human imagination is a force so potent that it can change what is true. Thanks to Lowell's Martian fantasies that helped inspire the early space age, visiting the Red Planet has become a potentially realisable goal for today's children. [loc. 3031]
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 26 AUG 2025.
* same thing?
June 24, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an advance copy of this new look at an early 20th century craze that swept the nation, one that scared and intrigued people, one that inspired many, and gave rise to a lot of different stories, ideas and conspiracies that we are still enjoying, or dealing with today.
I never thought it about it much but while other men are thinking about the Roman Empire, I find myself thinking of Mars. The Red Planet was part of my childhood with Marvin the Martian, and his duels with Daffy and Bugs Bunny. Somehow I remember watching My Favorite Martian, but I am not that old. I read Martian Chronicles and John Carter adventures set on Mars one summer, two different sets of stories that inspired me in different ways. And honestly anything I read about the Mars Rovers always make me sad, thinking about those robots carrying on past the life expectancy doing work, and making science, with only a cold lonely fate to look forward too. I guess I am not alone as many a finance bro and billionaire think of Mars as the next great thing, a landscape to exploit, maybe even a shelter from a dying Earth. Thinking about Mars is not a new thing. At the start of the 20th century, science was progressing in leaps and bounds. The heavens were being explored, and Mars was being made visible to telescopes and thinkers. And people who loved stories more than facts. The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America by science writer David Baron is a look at a time when Mars was the place, to paraphrase Sun Ra, when thoughts of aliens, canals, invasions, and much more filled the newspapers and lecture halls, and their effect on art, science and our thinking today.
The beginning of the 20th century was one of scientific technology leaping forward, with ideas coming quick and fast. The world was being explored, telegrams and telephones were able to speed communications. And the heavens were suddenly closer. Especially Mars. There had been much speculation on the planet being full of life, as a mistranslation of an Italian work by Giovanni Schiaparelli where he saw channels that was translated wrongly into canals. This error meant that many thought these formations were created by intelligent life, though many at the time were sure this was not so. However the world had changed much in a short period of time. Much of this change affected how people saw the world, and their importance in it. Into this stepped a young scientist with money to fund his experiments. Percival Lowell had the family name, the background and the ability to communicate to people, which he did on a series of lectures about Mars. How could Martians survive? Did they fly? Did they have gills? As more and more interest became apparant, soon the newspapers were making up stories for their readers. Tales of creatures, tales of structures on the surface. Tales of what could happen if they came here. Discussions began about what was real, and what was not, but soon Martian fever began to seep into the public consciousness, and people wanted more.
I had known that Mars was a phenomena at one point, but I had no idea how big. Nor the effect that much of this had on not only science and scientific presentation and methods, but about art, and thinking. Baron is a very good writer, able to make the science clear and understandable, while also detailing the many different aspects in society that were being undergoing a lot of upheaval. Baron profiles many from Lowell, to H. G. Welles, and also a name that does not get enough attention. Maria Mitchell and her efforts to bring more women into science, when this idea wasn't even considered possible or useful. There are many good stories, and lots of asides of facts and information that really make the book quite enjoyable.
An interesting read for people who like to read about science, the fascinating people involved in science, both good and bad. Also science fiction fans will get a lot out of this. Probably like myself in thinking how different their life would be without Mars.
I never thought it about it much but while other men are thinking about the Roman Empire, I find myself thinking of Mars. The Red Planet was part of my childhood with Marvin the Martian, and his duels with Daffy and Bugs Bunny. Somehow I remember watching My Favorite Martian, but I am not that old. I read Martian Chronicles and John Carter adventures set on Mars one summer, two different sets of stories that inspired me in different ways. And honestly anything I read about the Mars Rovers always make me sad, thinking about those robots carrying on past the life expectancy doing work, and making science, with only a cold lonely fate to look forward too. I guess I am not alone as many a finance bro and billionaire think of Mars as the next great thing, a landscape to exploit, maybe even a shelter from a dying Earth. Thinking about Mars is not a new thing. At the start of the 20th century, science was progressing in leaps and bounds. The heavens were being explored, and Mars was being made visible to telescopes and thinkers. And people who loved stories more than facts. The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America by science writer David Baron is a look at a time when Mars was the place, to paraphrase Sun Ra, when thoughts of aliens, canals, invasions, and much more filled the newspapers and lecture halls, and their effect on art, science and our thinking today.
The beginning of the 20th century was one of scientific technology leaping forward, with ideas coming quick and fast. The world was being explored, telegrams and telephones were able to speed communications. And the heavens were suddenly closer. Especially Mars. There had been much speculation on the planet being full of life, as a mistranslation of an Italian work by Giovanni Schiaparelli where he saw channels that was translated wrongly into canals. This error meant that many thought these formations were created by intelligent life, though many at the time were sure this was not so. However the world had changed much in a short period of time. Much of this change affected how people saw the world, and their importance in it. Into this stepped a young scientist with money to fund his experiments. Percival Lowell had the family name, the background and the ability to communicate to people, which he did on a series of lectures about Mars. How could Martians survive? Did they fly? Did they have gills? As more and more interest became apparant, soon the newspapers were making up stories for their readers. Tales of creatures, tales of structures on the surface. Tales of what could happen if they came here. Discussions began about what was real, and what was not, but soon Martian fever began to seep into the public consciousness, and people wanted more.
I had known that Mars was a phenomena at one point, but I had no idea how big. Nor the effect that much of this had on not only science and scientific presentation and methods, but about art, and thinking. Baron is a very good writer, able to make the science clear and understandable, while also detailing the many different aspects in society that were being undergoing a lot of upheaval. Baron profiles many from Lowell, to H. G. Welles, and also a name that does not get enough attention. Maria Mitchell and her efforts to bring more women into science, when this idea wasn't even considered possible or useful. There are many good stories, and lots of asides of facts and information that really make the book quite enjoyable.
An interesting read for people who like to read about science, the fascinating people involved in science, both good and bad. Also science fiction fans will get a lot out of this. Probably like myself in thinking how different their life would be without Mars.
February 9, 2026
I've always been fascinated by Mars. I mean I loved space in general as a kid, but Mars was especially big because I grew up in the 90s and early 2000s where it felt like there was a cool new Mars probe every week. And I devoured all the books I could find about Mars, so I was already aware of the basics of the canal controversy before picking up this book. But David Baron does a great job of really digging into it and exploring not just the science but the social and historical aspects of the whole thing.
The book starts in 1876, though it mainly focuses on the two decades of the 1890s and 1900s. As with many things in the 19th century, astronomy was becoming more and more similar to the scientific field we know today, and people across the world were using telescopes to peer into the heavens and try to understand the universe. Unsurprisingly Mars was a focus of a lot of this exploration, as it comes quite close to Earth every two years and stands out well against other things in the sky thanks to its bright red color. Also, the theory of the evolution of the solar system at the time posited that the planets further from the sun had been formed earlier than those nearer the sun. Thus, Mars was like our older brother and studying it might tell us something about the future of Earth.
So of course everyone went wild with excitement when reports came of an Italian astronomer seeing canals on Mars. Except...as I already knew, he used an Italian word that meant channels (and thus not implying intelligent creation) and that got easily mistranslated as canals. It does seem like that didn't take too long to get corrected, but the way the idea of canals on Mars was so suggestive of intelligent life meant that everyone was already off to the races to try to learn more and even see if the Martians could be contacted.
As a result, the book touches on all sorts of events and figures from this part of history. Of course Percival Lowell is heavily involved, as he founded an observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona that lead the pro-canal charge. And in fact while the book explores other themes and topics, it feels like it does a fair job of profiling Lowell over the course of his adult life, from Harvard graduation all the way to death. It's fascinating to see how as time goes on and scientific knowledge advances he goes from a leading pioneer to the 1910s version of a flat earther YouTube channel. Nikolai Tesla also makes some appearances, as does Marconi and Edison. On the fiction side, there's plenty about HG Wells, and not just War of the Worlds, but some of his earlier and later works that track his reaction to the changing state of science. But I especially enjoy how at the end of the book, Baron traces a direct line from this era to his own interest in Mars by way of Carl Sagan, who was influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom books. It's a nice reminder that for all that the idea of canals proved to be bunk, they were and still are influential on how we think about the red planet and space as a whole.
This proved to be a pretty interesting book that does a good job of exploring its topic. It did leave me with the feeling that there's the potential for some really interesting throwback sci-fi about a world where there really were Martians and one or more of the outlandish plans for contacting them went through. So I guess in that way it's valuable not just as a lesson in history but as something to get me thinking about Mars just as people back then were left wondering.
The book starts in 1876, though it mainly focuses on the two decades of the 1890s and 1900s. As with many things in the 19th century, astronomy was becoming more and more similar to the scientific field we know today, and people across the world were using telescopes to peer into the heavens and try to understand the universe. Unsurprisingly Mars was a focus of a lot of this exploration, as it comes quite close to Earth every two years and stands out well against other things in the sky thanks to its bright red color. Also, the theory of the evolution of the solar system at the time posited that the planets further from the sun had been formed earlier than those nearer the sun. Thus, Mars was like our older brother and studying it might tell us something about the future of Earth.
So of course everyone went wild with excitement when reports came of an Italian astronomer seeing canals on Mars. Except...as I already knew, he used an Italian word that meant channels (and thus not implying intelligent creation) and that got easily mistranslated as canals. It does seem like that didn't take too long to get corrected, but the way the idea of canals on Mars was so suggestive of intelligent life meant that everyone was already off to the races to try to learn more and even see if the Martians could be contacted.
As a result, the book touches on all sorts of events and figures from this part of history. Of course Percival Lowell is heavily involved, as he founded an observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona that lead the pro-canal charge. And in fact while the book explores other themes and topics, it feels like it does a fair job of profiling Lowell over the course of his adult life, from Harvard graduation all the way to death. It's fascinating to see how as time goes on and scientific knowledge advances he goes from a leading pioneer to the 1910s version of a flat earther YouTube channel. Nikolai Tesla also makes some appearances, as does Marconi and Edison. On the fiction side, there's plenty about HG Wells, and not just War of the Worlds, but some of his earlier and later works that track his reaction to the changing state of science. But I especially enjoy how at the end of the book, Baron traces a direct line from this era to his own interest in Mars by way of Carl Sagan, who was influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom books. It's a nice reminder that for all that the idea of canals proved to be bunk, they were and still are influential on how we think about the red planet and space as a whole.
This proved to be a pretty interesting book that does a good job of exploring its topic. It did leave me with the feeling that there's the potential for some really interesting throwback sci-fi about a world where there really were Martians and one or more of the outlandish plans for contacting them went through. So I guess in that way it's valuable not just as a lesson in history but as something to get me thinking about Mars just as people back then were left wondering.
May 31, 2025
The idea of life on Mars in the 21st century is generally the stuff of science fiction or children's cartoons, but at the turn of the 20th Century most people believed that there were canals on Mars built by intelligent life. Were they were watching us here on Earth? Could we communicate with them via the new wireless radio? Newspapers as reputable as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal routinely published headlines contemplating aspects of Martian life, and amateur astronomers packed lecture halls with their thrilling talks on the red planet.
Chief among them was Percival Lowell, a wealthy young man whose fancy had always been with the stars and the endless expanse of the galaxy. Nikola Tesla was in the picture too (often disagreeing with Lowell's theories), as was H.G. Wells. They all followed the publications of Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. It was Schiaparelli who first identified the "canali" on our neighboring planet, a label that was mistranslated into "canals". But what if there were canals on Mars? What would it imply about the sophistication and mastery of their world of creatures with the ability to build perfectly straight structures that ran for thousands of miles?
The concept fired the world's imagination. Casual astronomers routinely traveled the globe to get better views of astronomical events like eclipses. Lowell, blessed with great riches thanks to his wealthy family, built an observatory in Arizona, then another in South America, the better to see and map those canals. But what he saw with his limited telescopes was as much an optical illusion as the actual features of the distant planet, and ultimately his entire theory of intelligent life was disproven.
Science writer David Baron offers up a fascinating history of this era of Martian fever, approximately the late 1800s up to the 1920s, when wars and other global matters pushed the imagined Martians off the front pages and out of people's drawing rooms and casual conversations. The book is very focused on Lowell, however, suggesting that it might be better with the subtitle "How Percival Lowell ignited Western imaginations about the red planet" or similar. Still, a very engaging read, recommended for space enthusiasts and people who are intrigued by how crowds and groupthink can influence the national agenda and conversation.
Disclosure: I received this book through NetGalley in return for this candid review.
Chief among them was Percival Lowell, a wealthy young man whose fancy had always been with the stars and the endless expanse of the galaxy. Nikola Tesla was in the picture too (often disagreeing with Lowell's theories), as was H.G. Wells. They all followed the publications of Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. It was Schiaparelli who first identified the "canali" on our neighboring planet, a label that was mistranslated into "canals". But what if there were canals on Mars? What would it imply about the sophistication and mastery of their world of creatures with the ability to build perfectly straight structures that ran for thousands of miles?
The concept fired the world's imagination. Casual astronomers routinely traveled the globe to get better views of astronomical events like eclipses. Lowell, blessed with great riches thanks to his wealthy family, built an observatory in Arizona, then another in South America, the better to see and map those canals. But what he saw with his limited telescopes was as much an optical illusion as the actual features of the distant planet, and ultimately his entire theory of intelligent life was disproven.
Science writer David Baron offers up a fascinating history of this era of Martian fever, approximately the late 1800s up to the 1920s, when wars and other global matters pushed the imagined Martians off the front pages and out of people's drawing rooms and casual conversations. The book is very focused on Lowell, however, suggesting that it might be better with the subtitle "How Percival Lowell ignited Western imaginations about the red planet" or similar. Still, a very engaging read, recommended for space enthusiasts and people who are intrigued by how crowds and groupthink can influence the national agenda and conversation.
Disclosure: I received this book through NetGalley in return for this candid review.
August 16, 2025
The Martians by David Baron is a highly recommended entertaining and historical account of the obsession with Mars that occurred at the turn of the 20th century. As science journalist Baron explains in the prologue this fixation on Mars and it's potential canals and intelligent life forms is an example of human imagination and inventiveness but it is also a cautionary tale of mass delusion and battling egos. Ultimately, it is a historical account of people projecting their fantasies, desires, and ambitions onto an alien world.
Involved in the claim of observing and recording of canals on Mars and the contention of intelligent life were primarily Percival Lowell in America, Camille Flammarion in France, and scientist Giovanni Schiaparelli in Italy, who first purported seeing ancient canals. The narrative mainly follows Lowell's obsession with canals and a civilization. He even went on lecture tours and wrote books about Mars. Inventor Nikola Tesla was sure he would be able to invent a way to signal Mars. Also encouraging the obsession were numerous science fiction writers. The text includes many photos and illustrations.
Beginning with the Prologue, the book is then presented in three parts: Century's End - 1876-1900; A New Civilization - 1901-1907; The Earthlings Respond - 1908-1916. This is followed by an Epilogue, Children of Mars, which follows the impact of the Martian mania on popular culture. This is followed by Notes on Sources, an Abbreviations index, Notes, a List of Illustrations, and a Select Bibliography. Baron notes that the research for the book has involved hundreds of books, thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, and tens of thousand of pages in dairies, scrapbooks, logs, and letters form a wide variety of archives.
Anyone who enjoys history and associated pop culture trends will be entertained by The Martians. Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company/Liveright for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2025/0...
Involved in the claim of observing and recording of canals on Mars and the contention of intelligent life were primarily Percival Lowell in America, Camille Flammarion in France, and scientist Giovanni Schiaparelli in Italy, who first purported seeing ancient canals. The narrative mainly follows Lowell's obsession with canals and a civilization. He even went on lecture tours and wrote books about Mars. Inventor Nikola Tesla was sure he would be able to invent a way to signal Mars. Also encouraging the obsession were numerous science fiction writers. The text includes many photos and illustrations.
Beginning with the Prologue, the book is then presented in three parts: Century's End - 1876-1900; A New Civilization - 1901-1907; The Earthlings Respond - 1908-1916. This is followed by an Epilogue, Children of Mars, which follows the impact of the Martian mania on popular culture. This is followed by Notes on Sources, an Abbreviations index, Notes, a List of Illustrations, and a Select Bibliography. Baron notes that the research for the book has involved hundreds of books, thousands of newspaper and magazine articles, and tens of thousand of pages in dairies, scrapbooks, logs, and letters form a wide variety of archives.
Anyone who enjoys history and associated pop culture trends will be entertained by The Martians. Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company/Liveright for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2025/0...
March 8, 2026
A good review in the WSJ put this book by David Baron on my get-at-library list. It's easy to write off our modern age as one where the unwashed masses believe in utter claptrap, but guess what? The author, David Baron, demonstrates that back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, plenty of Americans got hooked into believing in Martians. And many of those people were well-washed.
Leading the way were the "amateur" astronomers of the day. (By our lights, most scientists back then were amateurs, although very enthusiastic.) The most famous was Percival Lowell, one of the immensely wealthy mill-owning Lowells of Boston. Percival wasn't that interested in mills, but used his fortune to build telescopes and (eventually) observatories, and his attention was concentrated on Mars.
And he reported some astounding news: Mars was an arid, dying, planet, but it had polar icecaps. And a vast network of canals, clearly meant to carry runoff water from those icecaps down to oases at lower latitudes. Clearly, the inhabitants of Mars had built them as a desperate measure to survive.
Although there were critics of this scenario, the public was swept up by Lowell's certainty. Nicola Tesla was also a True Believer, and made serious efforts to communicate with the Martians, either by huge reflecting mirrors or a even bigger radio antenna. H.G. Wells also got in on the craze with (you may have heard) his novel War of the Worlds.
But by the early 1900s, the craze was in decline. Although Lowell remained a believer in his fantasy until he died in 1916, he was increasingly isolated and depressed. (Tesla, as you might know, was even crazier, developing an (um) eccentric attachment to a white New York pigeon that he claimed visited him daily.)
Baron does a good job of getting into Lowell's head. Occasionally his prose gets purple and (perhaps) overly speculative, but that's OK.
August 6, 2025
"Why Mars?" is the question asked not only by the author, but of the reader. Why this fascination with the red planet, one of Earth's closest neighbors? And why was there this fixation on canals and intelligent life on Mars? Where did that come from and what has it spawned? Those are some of the questions that David Baron seeks to answer in The Martians.
David Baron divides his tale into three parts - Part One - Century's End - 1876-1900, Part Two - A New Civilization - 1901-1907, and Part Three - The Earthlings Respond - 1908-1916. David Bruce brings in all of the big guns of the day - Percival Lowell who became enthralled with the Far East before he turned his vision onto the heavens, the Widow Guzman who funded the Pierre Guzman prize for communication with another planet, or star, Camille Flammarion, a French astronomer, and color-blind Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli who mapped Mars and drew in the canali or channels that he saw on the surface which caused much confusion when the term migrated into English as "canals." Later on Nicoli Tesla makes his appearance along with H. G. Wells who brings a Martian invasion to his local village. A whole host of British and American astronomers who argue both for and against the concept of Martian life spend decades going back and forth over the evidence that Lowell and others produce until newer and better telescopes clarify the view of Mars from Earth. David Baron not only tells the tale of the Martian craze, he also provides the context in which it occurred giving the reader a feel for the popular culture that existed alongside it and the consequences and influence the craze had on American and world culture.
If a well-written true science tale mixed with popular culture is what you crave, pick up David Baron's The Martians and be prepared to enjoy yourself!
Thanks Netgalley and Liveright Publishing Corporation for the chance to read this title!
David Baron divides his tale into three parts - Part One - Century's End - 1876-1900, Part Two - A New Civilization - 1901-1907, and Part Three - The Earthlings Respond - 1908-1916. David Bruce brings in all of the big guns of the day - Percival Lowell who became enthralled with the Far East before he turned his vision onto the heavens, the Widow Guzman who funded the Pierre Guzman prize for communication with another planet, or star, Camille Flammarion, a French astronomer, and color-blind Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli who mapped Mars and drew in the canali or channels that he saw on the surface which caused much confusion when the term migrated into English as "canals." Later on Nicoli Tesla makes his appearance along with H. G. Wells who brings a Martian invasion to his local village. A whole host of British and American astronomers who argue both for and against the concept of Martian life spend decades going back and forth over the evidence that Lowell and others produce until newer and better telescopes clarify the view of Mars from Earth. David Baron not only tells the tale of the Martian craze, he also provides the context in which it occurred giving the reader a feel for the popular culture that existed alongside it and the consequences and influence the craze had on American and world culture.
If a well-written true science tale mixed with popular culture is what you crave, pick up David Baron's The Martians and be prepared to enjoy yourself!
Thanks Netgalley and Liveright Publishing Corporation for the chance to read this title!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews