The Martians
The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-century America
Will be published approx. on 1. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-324-09936-9 (ISBN)
Description
The The New York Times headline was no joke. In the early 1900s, many believed intelligent life had been discovered on Mars. Reconstructed through newly discovered clippings, letters and photographs, The Martians begins in the 1890s with a Harvard scion who was so certain of his Mars discovery that he (almost) convinced a generation of astronomers that grainy photographs of the red planet revealed meltwater and an intricate canal system, declaring "there can be no doubt that living beings inhabit our neighbouring world" (The New York Times).
A frenzied international controversy soon arose. Inventor Nikola Tesla announced he had received Martian radio signals, biologists debated whether Martians were winged or gilled and a new genre called science fiction arose. While Lowell's claims were debunked, his influence sparked a compulsive interest in Mars and life in outer space that continues to this day.
A frenzied international controversy soon arose. Inventor Nikola Tesla announced he had received Martian radio signals, biologists debated whether Martians were winged or gilled and a new genre called science fiction arose. While Lowell's claims were debunked, his influence sparked a compulsive interest in Mars and life in outer space that continues to this day.
Reviews / Votes
"The world is gaga for Mars. Its richest man, Elon Musk, is actively scheming to colonize the red planet over the next decade... Under the long, dark shadow cast by this ambition, the science journalist David Baron has produced a short, twinkling book about the origins of Mars mania... You can consider Baron a sort of sun, shedding light... In Baron's true tale, reputations rise and fall, and ego distorts like a smudged lens." -- Alexandra Jacobs - The New York Times Book Review "Mars, our barren neighbor, has served as an empty canvas for our expansionist imaginations since long before Elon Musk arrived on the scene. Baron chronicles the lasting influence of the Mars mania that gripped America during the early 1900s, how it captured the imaginations of Nikola Tesla and Alexander Graham Bell, generated speculative news headlines, fueled astronomical ambitions and left an indelible imprint on our culture." -- The New York Times Book Review "[The Martians] shows how fantastical beliefs gained purchase in a pre-Facebook age... Still, if Baron deftly illustrates the historical roots of collective phantasms, his book is ultimately most interesting for what it says about the timelessness of our shared fascination with the stars, and Mars in particular" -- Jon Allsop - The New Yorker "Baron's vivid narrative reads as part history, part social study, and part literary drama, making complex scientific dynamics accessible without sacrificing depth... The Martians does more than examine this episode in astronomical history; it also illuminates the very human processes by which science is often made, contested, and believed." -- Dov Greenbaum - Science Magazine "[A] convivial and rigorously researched history of the first Martian craze... The Martians is fundamentally a portrait of the man who turned Mars into the night sky's red Rorschach blot." -- Nathaniel Rich - The New York Review of BooksMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United States
Publishing group
W W Norton & Co Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
101 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-324-09936-9 (9781324099369)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2025
Liveright
€27.99
Available for download
Person
David Baron is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and author of The Beast in the Garden and American Eclipse. A former science correspondent for NPR, he has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, and other publications. David recently served as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.