Investigating the Unexplained [Paperback]

Melvin Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003

This entertaining and enlightening book shows us how and why misinterpretations, deceptions, and half-truths become accepted as 'established facts', and how the public is taken in time after time - often for generations. "Investigating the Unexplained" is an exciting look at psychic mysteries and the facts behind them.

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591021081
• ISBN-13: 978-1591021087
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Skeptical (or sceptical) Classic, January 23, 2009

By 

William (Kennesaw, GA, United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Investigating the Unexplained (Paperback)

This book is a little treasure. Harris, a BBC investigative reporter, turns his critical eye on a number of mysterious phenomena and asks - did this really happen?

My only complaint is that he didn't include a detailed footnote system for checking his research, but he does give plenty of information that one could use to double-check him if one had time.

When he passed he got a nice obituary from Joe Nickell - and I just regret that I never heard of this book back when it came out. The reissue from Prometheus books is a very nice quality paperback. There are plenty of illustrations, and many cases which I'd never heard of before here in the States.

If you love mysteries, you'll find this book a lot of fun as he presents the mysterious "intact" and then gives the explanations in a friendly conversational manner.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool-headed and tempered arguments worth reading, March 19, 2008

By 

BOOKIES (Carrboro, NC, United States) - See all my reviews

I read this book many years ago in conjunction with Daniel Cohen's Encyclopedia of the Strange (equally excellent) as a sort of point/counterpoint exercise. After becoming more and more seduced by the otherworldly allure of the various mysterious phenomena then being explored by authors such as Charles Berlitz, Daniel Cohen, et al., I remember feeling that Melvin Harris' book was the best counterbalance I could find at the time to scrutinize these unexplained events in a more rational light.