UFOs & Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery - Hardcover

Bartholomew, Robert E.; Howard, George S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573922005 ISBN 13: 9781573922005

Publisher: Prometheus, 1998

Synopsis

The power of imagination, group psychology, and the concept of "fantasy prone personalities," are explored by Bartholomew and Howard as they probe the history of how UFO stories are spread. The impact of "collective delusion" enhanced by the media can be dangerous, leaving great pain and tragedy in its wake. Included are detailed descriptions of the United States airship flap of 1896-97; the imaginary sightings of Thomas Edison's "electric star" of the late 1800s; Canada's phantom balloon wave of 1896-97; the New Zealand zeppelin scare of 1909; the British UFO panic of 1912-13; phantom German air raids and spy missions over Canada, New York, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Africa during World War I; Sweden's ghost rocket crisis of 1946. These are all reports of UFOs before the famed Roswell incident and the emergence of flying saucers since 1947.

The authors examine collective behavior, fallible human perception, deviance, religion, popular culture, history, the role of the media, and relationships to the paranormal. From alien contact with humans to well-organized cults, UFOs and Alien Contact is gripping, humorous, and at times horrifying.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert E. Bartholomew (Queensland, Australia) holds a Ph.D. in sociology from James Cook University.
George S. Howard (Notre Dame, IN) is professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame.

Review:

Without question, sociologist Robert Bartholomew and social psychologist George Howard have compiled one of the best collections of UFO reports, alien contact claims, and reports of alien abductions available thus far. Every serious student of UFOlogy should read and ponder their meticulously researched and carefully documented historical account of 'strange things in the sky.'
-Robert A. Baker, professor emeritus of psychology, University of Kentucky
 

...a work of serious scholarship. ...It is rare that one finds in a single volume such a wealth of historical detail processed through powerful analytical tools of social psychology. ...It is encourging to see ... sober, sensible and engaging assessments of developments and events in an area that has been filled with controversy.
-Michael J. Crowe, Professor Emeritus in Humanities, University of Notre Dame, writing in ISIS: Journal of the History of Science in Society, June 2001, 91(2):395-397.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1573922005
• ISBN 13: 9781573922005
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 410