Customer Reviews

Ufo Encyclopedia

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Quite simply, this is THE book to buy if you're interested in learning about the UFO phenomenon. Many UFO books are often written by "true believers" with dubious credentials, and as a result they feature little or no research to support the author's claims. However, Jerome Clark is a respected UFO historian whose books have won awards from the New York Public Library, and even UFO skeptics regard him as a legitimate UFO researcher and historian. An abridged version of this encyclopedia ("The UFO Book") won the prestigious Benjamin Franklin award in the Science/Environment category from the Independent Book Publishers Association, and the two-volume encyclopedia was praised by "Library Journal" magazine, which recommended the encyclopedia to public and academic libraries. Clark has packed this encyclopedia with a massive amount of research and plenty of references to back up his arguments. And this is a true encyclopedia - the 273 articles cover, alphabetically, almost every major UFO sighting since the 1890's, as well as the major theories that are used to explain UFO sightings, and biographies of almost every major ufologist and skeptic in the field. Although Clark is a "believer" in the sense that he tends to side with those who believe that UFOs represent something real and extraordinary, he is fair to the skeptics and debunkers and does include their explanations for each sighting, even though he often disagrees with it. It is this even-handedness that makes the "UFO Encyclopdia" stand out from most other UFO books. If you want a handy reference book that will answer almost any question you have about UFOs, then this is the only book you'll ever need. And, as a rebuttal to those who believe that UFOs are "nonsense" and not to be taken seriously, Clark's "UFO Encyclopedia" presents a mighty challenge. If you could only buy just one UFO book for your personal library, then the "UFO Encyclopedia" is by far the best choice - I have no doubt that it will be the standard reference book for years, if not decades, to come.

This is a landmark book and a remarkable achievement. The entries are very detailed, balanced and extremely well-referenced. Many of Clark's entries are worth the equivalent of an entire book boiled down to a few pages. I have suggested to several sociology colleagues that they get their libraries to order it. When a case is in doubt, Clark tends to land on the side of possible ET visitation. While I disagree such interpretations and assessments (because I require absolute proof), Clark is certainly within his rights to do so because he bases his views on evidence, and he backs up his argument with quality references and lucid reasoning. No matter where one stands on the UFO debate (and I am a sympathetic skeptic), this 2 volume set clearly stands as the most thorough ever written for the 273 entries covered. Jerome Clark should be congratulated for an almost superhuman effort.

I can't imagine a more interesting and non-biased overview of the history of the modern UFO phenomena. Clarks encyclopedia - now in two volumes - is a multi-chambered labyrinth of sighting reports, witness biographies, and ruminations upon events which are fascinating from whichever angle the reader chooses to the view them: as actual events, as hallucinations, as modern folklore, or as hoaxes. Recommended for individuals and libraries that can afford this addition.

Jerry Clark has demonstrated himself to be the leading historian of UFOlogy with the two editions of his UFO Encyclopedia. These hefty volumes pretty much cover the bases, with plenty of documentation for further study, and are a useful resource for those who have already taken a position (no matter what it might be) on the UFO issue as well as those who are undecided.

Many have wished for the existence of a fundamental reader on the immense topic of UFOlogy that cuts through the self-promotions of the cottage industry, sees hoaxes and likely errors of perception for what they are, respects the scientific method as the best way to approach irreducible and anomalous data, understands the impact of organized disinformation and inevitable misinformation on a proto-science denied the multidisciplinary efforts that would bring its data into clearer focus, yet keeps in front of us the best quality of information and presents it with appreciation for the critiques of both debunkers and agnostics applying Occam's razor to interpretations.

Jerry Clark's 2-volume UFO Encyclopedia does this in a comprehensive, thorough, extraordinary way. His work and mind are - duh!--encyclopedic in all the best senses of the term. No exploration of this subject would be complete without reference to this material.

Jerry Clark's "UFO Encyclopedia" is published in two heavy, large double-columned hardcover volumes containing 273 short chapters collectively detailing virtually every subject, encounter, hypothesis, witness, researcher, and author of note in the history of the UFO phenomenon. The entries are alphabetically listed from A-K in volume one, L-Z in volume two; it contains monochrome images where relevant and the full length over the two volumes exceeds 1,000 pages. This is a first class piece of research and an indispensable work of reference to anyone interested in this enormously complex phenomenon, its history, theories to attempt to explain it and the scores of individuals who over the decades have contributed to its understanding or in other ways been involved. The editing is first class, the whole work completely free of typos and the print quality the best you'll find anywhere.

Each entry summarises its particular subject lucidly and accurately in straightforward, literate prose and is thoroughly referenced. Clark wastes no time and reports the facts; his 2-page mini-biographies are textbook lessons in brevity. There's a huge amount of information in here and it's likely that even if you have spent years studying this subject, you'll learn about some aspect of the phenomenon which is new to you.

The Encyclopedia is characterized by thoroughness, impartiality, common sense and intelligence. It really is hard to fault. If you own a copy then every time you come across some new aspect of the phenomenon - whether you want to understand the "psychosocial hypothesis", or the Tombaugh sighting, read summaries of CE3s, hoaxes or the contactee phenomenon or need a mini-biography of Raymond Fowler - then reaching for Jerry Clark's book will save hours of trawling through the web trying to separate the signal from all the noise. Clark has done the work, and here is the heart of the matter in all its detail: lucid, thorough, insightful, informative, accurate, agenda-free.

The only possible down-side is that a really good copy of the full two-volume encyclopedia is hard to find and expensive. Also it's not small, and will need shelf-space. However, it's one of the best investments you could make and worth a shelf-full of more partisan and less informative books on the subject. It's the best. Buy and keep a good copy, if you can find one.

Through base knowledge of the ufo history/lore. Two volumes not cheap, but a must if you're really building a "reference" library.

Unfortunately this book lacks of a good editor who can classify in the design all of the different cases and link them together so the reader can browse through them.
An editor could easily underline the basic facts of a term and spell it out to the reader.
For example, there should be colored textboxes for to distinguish the credible facts from the misssing information.
Moreover, under famous cases like "Roswell" he offers little accounting of the event blaming ufologist literature. I can hardly believe that the most famous case of a "UFO landing" has little material, while he describes the Hill case (less witnesses) in such a detail.
This book is too expensive for what it offers. It promises an organised reference of UFOs and instead is difficult to read and in some occations it lacks of information.