UFOs and Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery is an indispensible treasure trove of material that represents the most comprehensive survey ever published of past and present UFO sightings.
What a marvelous book! It rich, detailed history of "strange things seen in the sky" alone is worth the price of admission, and I found its explanation for the UFO phenomenon compelling. A must for anyone interested in the subject.
Erich Goode
State University of New York, Stony Brook
What can explain the thousands of UFO sightings and claims of alien abductions? Are people actually seeing "strange things in the sky" or are they fantasy-prone? Attempts to prove or disprove individual claims have only heightened the controversy. Are there any clues to this mystery in the social history of past and present sightings?
Sociologist Robert E. Bartholomew and psychologist George S. Howard have written the most detailed and comprehensive examination to date of the history behind UFO mysteries, ambitiously documenting waves of UFO sightings both national and international in scope, as well as abductions claims dating back to the nineteenth century.
Using thousands of rare press reports, the authors examine the context and meaning of UFO sightings and how the waves of these experiences have never been studied or only given cursory treatment. UFOs and Alien Contact covers the history, context, and symbolism of UFO phenomena during the nineteenth century, including Thomas Edison's "Electric Star" delusion, Canada's ghost balloons, and the U.S. airship hysteria of 1896-97. Bartholomew and Howard take the reader on a journey through such liitle-known episodes as the New Zealand Zeppelin scare of 1909, the New England airship hoax of 1909-10, and the British UFO panic of 1912-13. Also examined in detail are the waves of UFO sightings during World War I over Canada, upstate New York, Delaware, New Hampshire, and South Africa. There are chapters on Sweden's ghost rocket sightings of 1946, a duscussion of the Roswell incident and similar accounts of crashed UFOs over eighty years before Roswell, and the emergence of flying saucers since 1947. Of particular interst is a chronological catalogue of over two hundred contact cases, summarizing each incident.
Meticulously researched and dicumented, UFOs and Alien Contact is an indispensible guide for anyone seriously interested in the facts about the real history of the UFO phenomenon.
Robert E. Bartholomew is a researcher in sociology at James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia.
George S. Howard is professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame.