The eminence from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich wanted to reassure his audience with light humor. “You may sleep quietly in your beds,” said Edward Walter Maunder at a meeting of the British ...

Talk about fake news: In 1907 a New York Times banner headline declared, “There Is Life On the Planet Mars.” Upping the ante the next year, the stodgy Wall Street Journal claimed “proof” of “conscious ...

At the turn of the 20th century, the "Mars Craze" reached a fever pitch, fueled by tales of intelligent canal-building Martians and the tantalizing possibly of contact between planets. Newspapers ...

In The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze That Captured Turn-of-the-Century America, science journalist and best-selling author David Baron offers a completely true look at America’s ...

Source: Liveright Publicating Corporation/with permission. I've known award-winning science writer David Baron for many years and have always enjoyed his previous superbly written books. A few months ...