The Day After Roswell (Hardcover)

by Col. Philip J. Corso (Author), William J. Birnes (Author) "THE NIGHT HUGS THE GROUND AND SWALLOWS YOU UP AS YOU drive out of Albuquerque and into the desert..." (more)
Key Phrases: supertenacity fibers, manned lunar outpost, nut file, General Trudeau, United States, General Twining (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
If you've ever wondered what crashed into the desert near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, this book will give you some startling answers. While the first version was published in hardcover in 1997, Corso provides new evidence for the presence of alien intruders in this pocket paperback edition. Whether or not you believe his contention, the sheer weight of governmental sources and documentation presented by the former Army intelligence officer is not easily dismissed. Once you understand the historical context (in the midst of the Cold War soon after World War II, with Orson Welles having recently inspired panic in citizens with his fictional War of the Worlds radio broadcast), the military deciding to cover up a real-life alien ship becomes more credible. Corso also gives a convincing explanation of why reports were so multi-various and conflicting. Even if you believe the book is utter fiction, it's still a compelling read. --Randall Cohan --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Library Journal
As the 50th anniversary approaches of the crash of a so-called extraterrestrial craft near Roswell, New Mexico, the UFO conspiracy theory is getting more attention. These latest books approach Roswell from different perspectives but identical agendas. Hesemann and Mantle are young UFO researchers who have visited Roswell and spent several years collecting documents and eyewitness testimony from people reputedly involved in either the crash recovery or its cover-up. (Most of the eyewitnesses turn out not to be.) The authors trade off chapters, with Hesemann using his anthropologist's training not only to tie the Roswell crash to Native American legends but to claim that Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Greek alphabet are directly related to the characters said to have adorned the crashed spacecraft's exterior. Corso, a career military intelligence officer, claims to have managed myriad research projects throughout the 1950s connected to recovery of the Roswell craft. Like Hesemann and Mantle, he asserts that the Cold War was a cover to develop "alien technology" that superpowers USA and USSR could not only use against the other but against the threat of extraterrestrial invasion. The most memorable passage in either book, however, is Hesemann and Mantle's suggestion that President Clinton induced the warring parties to make peace in the Bosnian war only by showing them proof of that alien menace. For public libraries convinced that pro-UFO books are needed for balance, the Hesemann and Mantle may be appropriate. The Corso is only for the few special libraries that have made documenting the unconventional a collecting priority.?Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., Pa.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pocket Books; 1st edition (July 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671004611
• ISBN-13: 978-0671004613
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (244 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #455,412 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars My Close Encounter with Philip Corso, February 6, 2007

By	InsightStraight (New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Day After Roswell (Hardcover)

When "The Day After Roswell" came out in 1997, I was working in a bookstore in Albuquerque. We got the book's author, Philip Corso, for a signing.

Our store had a good reputation for events around "High Strange" subjects, partly due to my efforts. Publishers knew we were worth putting on the schedule. Besides, UFO books in general make for good trade - host a novelist or a 'serious' book and you might get less than a dozen people, feature a UFO author and you could count on at least 100.

And it was well over 100 who turned out for Philip Corso that night. It was a great draw, even besides the local interest of Roswell: an ex-military man who had been "deep in", telling all...

Mr. Corso made an impressive speaker. His grasp of names and dates was so immediate that it actually made me envious; he never seemed to falter in his recall. He was able to reel off locations, offices, names, ranks...

He covered the basic elements from the book: that he had been called upon to assist in reverse-engineering and disseminating technologies garnered from alien craft, and that he had seen what seemed to be a small humanoid body packed in blue gel. He was careful to state that such was his only exposure to "the Roswell question", and that he had not himself seen any alien spacecraft

Then he took questions from the audience, and here it was that things started to get fuzzy around the edges. Just as does the book, he started to vary from the things he said he had personally witnessed, and included material from other sources.

At one point he mentioned that someone elsewhere in the government had told him that they had received some sort of strong signals from space, from a direction which Mr. Corso recalled and could provide. And he said, "Someone at one of these things [meaning a previous signing event] told me that in that direction is Zeta Reticuli."

(I groaned inwardly when I heard him say this. Zeta Reticuli was a particular favorite for the UFO enthusiasts at the time, as a home for certain alien visitors. And I just knew that, were I to interview the crowd the next day, a goodly number of them would remember that Mr. Corso had told them that the signal came from Zeta Reticuli. Thus do folktales grow.)

He answered a variety of questions, then we moved on to the signing of the books. As the host for the signing, it was my job to make sure things kept moving smoothly, and I was at Mr. Corso's elbow as I opened books so he could sign them. Thus I was privy to all of his conversations with people.

Most of the discussions were the usual things -- "usual" for a UFO book signing being a mix of sincere inquiry and intense conspiratorial viewpoint. But it was right at the end that things got really interesting.

A young boy came up with his mother; they had been waiting patiently and the boy had a drawing he wanted to show Mr. Corso. The boy was interested in engineering, as was Mr. Corso's son (or was it grandson? - I cannot recall for sure) and the author warmed to the boy and spent more time with him than he had with anyone else.

Mr. Corso praised the boy's drawing and told him to continue in his studies and become an engineer and maybe someday he would go into space. Then they talked about spacecraft and what they might be made of, and Mr. Corso suddenly said, "And even in the hot sun, they are cool to the touch, you know."

The boy asked what, and Mr. Corso said, "Alien spacecraft." My ears pricked up at this, since I had not long before heard him say very clearly to a large group of people that he had never himself seen an alien spacecraft, and now he was telling this young boy that he had touched one.

Mr. Corso proceeded to make a drawing for the boy, a representation of a classic flying saucer stuck into the ground at a 40-degree angle. He said that he had gone up to it and put his hand on it and "even in the hot desert sun it was cool to the touch".

The boy thanked him and took the drawing and left; the event was over. And I was left to mull over what I had heard.

Mr. Corso seemed to be what so many people in UFOlogy had been awaiting: an inside source, finally telling his tale. (Though even in the book he is very vague why he finally decided to break his security oath.) His presentation made him seem sharp and sure of his recall of names, titles, and places. But his willingness to be agreeable to suppositions put to him by the audience made me uneasy. And hearing him contradict a major part of his testimony in less than an hour made me place all of his testimony in question.

I had to conclude that Mr. Corso was a very nice old gentleman with some great stories. His grandkids growing tired of his stories, he went looking for a new audience and found a willing and eager one in the UFO community. And he himself was willing to support suppositions which were presented to him, as a way to please his new audience.

Mr. Corso's death soon after the release of the book brought, if not joy, great satisfaction to the conspiratorialists who could now claim that he was "silenced because he told the truth". But the truth I personally heard him present changed markedly in only a short time, and I carry away the conviction that Mr. Corso's stories are just that - stories - and do not constitute evidence.

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, March 20, 2002

By	apoem "apoem" (Bosque Farms, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Day After Roswell (Mass Market Paperback)

Here is my thoughts on this book. This is a fascinating book that is well written, logical, and easy to read. It clearly explains how the great jump in our technology happened in the last 50 or so years. IF it's true. If it's not a true book, then the author is very creative and the book is still a good read.

I for one do not doubt that this whole book might be based on truth. Basically the author recounts how he got a filing cabinet full of information that he had to 'farm out' to companies. The information? technology that was retrieved from a downed space craft (UFO) that crashed in Roswell. The author recounts how he helped share this information with others so that they could use it to increase our technology.

Fascinating.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely The Best, March 11, 2000

By	M. Bose "PurpleHaze" (Iowa, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Day After Roswell (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read literally hundreds of books and articles on UFO's - which I find to be a very serious subject. Unfortunately there are too many "questionable" sources contributing to the subject and many times it makes a mockery of serious contributers. In "The Day After Roswell" Colonel Philip J. Corso provides what I feel is the most detailed, reliable and completely objective account of history's most debated UFO incedent. Colonel Corso is one of a kind - in the right position at the right time to have first hand knowledge of many interesting details, a man of unquestionable integrity dedicated to serving the American people and exposing this incident for what it really is, and a true master of seperating fact from speculation. The truth is completely exposed in this book, more completely than I've ever seen. Everything from what actually happened in the deserts of New Mexico to the political and military scramble to not only cover it up but also to prepare a defense against it. Colonel Corso, I salute you - it takes a man of exceptional courage to jeapordize such an outstanding military career to do what's right.