Ufo's & Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery [Hardcover]

Robert E. Bartholomew (Author), George S. Howard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1998

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. 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 all reports of UFOs before the famed Roswell incident and the emergence of flying saucers since 1947. The authors examine collective behaviour, fallible human perception, deviance, religion, popular culture, history, the role of the media, and relationships to the paranormal.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; First Edition edition (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573922005
• ISBN-13: 978-1573922005
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,927 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sociologist Robert Bartholomew is an authority on social panics, rumors, scares, and hysterias. His articles have appeared in more than 60 peer-reviewed publications including the British Medical Journal, British Journal of Psychiatry, Canadian Medical Association Journal, and Medical Journal of Australia. He has worked as a journalist for several New York State radio stations, serving as news director twice, and is a former correspondent for WGY, Schenectady, one of the largest stations in the United States. A licensed secondary school social studies teacher, he has been interviewed on media scares in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, and on the History Channel. The Chair of his Ph.D. Committee was Professor Arthur Kleinman, Head of the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real eye-opener and a fascinating read., October 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Ufo's & Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery (Hardcover)

These 2 men know their stuff! The best book I've read on UFOs in 10-years. The authors provide a detailed social, historical and political context for a number of UFO waves throughout history, using incredible detail that I have never seen before in a UFO book. They make a strong case for the psycho-social genesis of UFO waves, yet also show a remarkable depth of understanding and sympathy with witnesses. The many sketches of UFOs from the last century and early this century are excellent. While I have read widely on UFOs, much of the historical detail about early UFO waves and sketches, I'd never seen nor heard of before. This would be a good book for the peron who thinks they know it all on UFOs--there is a tremendous wealth of knowledge here.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent scientific analysis, November 1, 2010

By 

Milton W. Hourcade (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ufo's & Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery (Hardcover)

The experts authors of this book offer an indisputable and meticulous view of how the UFO subject has evolved along the time, and particularly how the intelligence sources have manipulated the big public using the media, to change the opinion of the average American citizen, from thinking that the "flying saucers" could be weapons or experiments of the USA or the USSR, to "extraterrestrial ships".

The study is excellent throughout the whole book.

For me it is something that any honest UFO investigator or scholar should have in his/her bookshelves, and that any persona seriously interested in the subject should read.

In other words, it is a must!

6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No Mystery in this Methodical Madness, September 25, 1998

By 

ANN KNIGHT - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ufo's & Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery (Hardcover)

The beautiful cloud formation on the cover of this text is the only photograph encountered in 408 pages of pedestrian academic confession regarding research that is helpful for persons studying fantasy-prone personality syndrome, perhaps, but useless for those with inquiring minds who want to know...

...if there is a connection between crop circle formations and supposed alien-contact, ...how physical objects can manifest before the eyes of several (fantasy-prone) individuals at once, ...the spiritual significance of the UFO-encounter phenomenon at a time when "the shift of the Ages" is in progress.

There is a stunning lack of curiosity here--a profound narrowness of mind which elevates pragmatic (and psychological) comprehension while excluding a wholistic evaluation. It simply isn't true, for example, that there isn't evidence of UFOs (or ooparts) in earlier centuries. The excuse that the authors haven't experienced the "faith" required to believe in aliens is lame. And their failure to return to the framing question which begins the work in an epilogue, begs the question, "Isn't this simply evidence of the 'publish or perish' syndrome?"

What this text does, it does well. But it doesn't do what we want an exploration of "the mysteries" to do! The subtitle is betrayed from the get go. Buyer beware, indeed.