Review by Booklist Review
At the turn of the twentieth century, the public was fascinated by Mars. Baron (American Eclipse, 2017) looks at the scientists, astronomers, and journalists who popularized Mars news, among them Percival Lowell, Camille Flammarion, H. G. Wells, and Nikola Tesla. He highlights prominent scientific debates and infighting, particularly over the presence of canals on Mars, which supporters speculated might be signs of intelligent life. Mars permeated the public consciousness to the point where it affected literature, art, theater, and religion. Prominent figures speculated what Mars inhabitants would look like and how they would compare to humans. Throughout, Baron weaves in the impact of world affairs as well as sensationalist journalism, which positioned Mars news as an escape from reality. Although the Mars craze did not last past WWI, Baron argues that it influenced future space missions and sf luminaries. Additionally, Baron personally visited historic sites connected to Mars coverage, providing a present-day connection to past enthusiasm. A captivating look at an astronomical obsession.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this captivating and vivid history, journalist Baron (American Eclipse) recreates the mania for Mars that gripped America over a century ago. He recaps heated debates between eccentric intellectuals over the existence of intelligent life on the planet--indicated in the minds of some by straight lines, interpreted as canals, observed crisscrossing its surface. The most prominent of these "battling egos" was Percival Lowell, a Boston heir who established his own observatory; he theorized that Mars's canals were an irrigation system preserving a dying planet. Alongside H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds and Nikola Tesla's claim to have intercepted an extraterrestrial communication, Lowell's fantastical lectures depicting "the pathos and heroism of this great civilization fighting to survive" sparked a Mars craze, which included comics, a new dance ("A Signal from Mars"), and claims from some individuals to have visited the Red Planet as "disembodied souls." Baron astutely examines the societal shifts that account for the Martian fixation, among them the rise of a yellow press that craved sensationalistic stories, a new wave of exploration and invention (the Wright brothers' flights; expeditions to the North Pole), and divisive earthbound struggles like the Spanish-American War that rendered Mars--an imagined "Planet of Peace"--as a symbol of hope. While Baron points to the dangers of conspiracy theories and bunk science, he also presents the saga as one of infectious optimism that inspired subsequent generations of science fiction writers and scientists. It's an enthrallingly bizarre and surprisingly poignant account of humankind's limitless willingness to believe. (Aug.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Decades before Orson Welles's 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds triggered a panic among some unsuspecting listeners who thought Martians were invading the Earth, astronomers such as Percival Lowell, Camille Flammarion, and Giovanni Schiaparelli ushered in a cultural fixation on Mars from 1892 to 1916. Science journalist Baron (American Eclipse) explores the fanciful tales surrounding the debate on whether intelligent beings inhabited Mars. He details how tabloid newspapers and popular culture captured the public's imagination with reports about the astronomers who claimed they observed lines crisscrossing Mars. These lines, they believed, were canals engineered by an advanced civilization. Books, theatrical productions, and public lectures flourished as people eagerly awaited news of their Martian neighbors. Baron explains that even inventors like the eccentric Nikola Tesla attempted to build a behemoth radio tower that could receive signals from Mars. The author further frames the Mars debate and the accompanying mania within life's historical and cultural context at the turn of the century. VERDICT This absorbing, illustrated account will transport science fiction and astronomy buffs back to when people dreamed of life on Mars.--Donna Marie Smith
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Entertaining account of the Mars madness that saturated popular culture at the turn of the 20th century. Every year or two for a couple of centuries, a new book or movie or bit of news comes along to suggest that Mars once hosted life forms--and may yet do so, hidden under red rocks and sand dunes. As science journalist Baron records, that long trend traces back to the late 19th century, with numerous protagonists. In France, Camille Flammarion, a budding scientist, wrote novels in his spare time in which he supposed "other planets to be populated by the souls of dead humans," with one pair of doomed lovers reincarnated on Mars. So popular was Flammarion that an admirer gave him an imposing château outside Paris that he converted into his own observatory. In the U.S., Baron continues, came "the Mars boom of 1892," promulgated by, among others, future news magnate Joseph Pulitzer, whose papers breathlessly reported "three bright spots, like powerful searchlights," beaming down from Martian mountains. Italian scientist Giovanni Schiaparelli speculated that the regular lines that he could see through his telescope were ancient canals, a theme picked up by American astronomy buff and patron Percival Lowell, who in turn was sure that ancient civilizations once flourished on Mars. On that note, Baron turns to the liveliest part of his story, namely the influence of all this tentative, often flawed science on popular culture. He writes, "Lowell's influence leapfrogged to a whole new generation when the creator of another craze---the Tarzan novels---wrote a string of adventure books set on a fictional Mars known by its inhabitants as Barsoom." That author, Edgar Rice Burroughs, in turn inspired Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and many other sci-fi writers who gave us shelves of books by which to "pass Lowell's imaginative torch on to yet another generation." Are there Martians out there? Baron has evident good fun looking into the origins of an ongoing craze. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
