The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America
Aug 2025 · Liveright Publishing
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A TIME BEST BOOK OF 2025: "A completely true look at America’s infatuation with aliens at the turn of the 20th century that feels like it could be science fiction . . . The Martians is not only a captivating look at recent history, but also a poignant cautionary tale, offering hard-to-ignore parallels between the alien enthusiasts of the Gilded Age and the conspiracy theorists of today."
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Longlisted for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Science News, Boston Globe, Library Journal, Reactor, Bookreporter, PopMatters, Colorado Public Radio, and the Chicago Public Library
New York Times Book Review • Editors' Choice
Literary Hub • 10 Best-Reviewed Nonfiction Books of 2025
The Information • 20 Great Books to Read Over the Holidays 2025
Christian Science Monitor • 10 Best Books of August
A Westword holiday book recommendation
This New York Times headline was no joke.
In the early 1900s, many Americans actually believed we had discovered intelligent life on Mars, as best-selling science writer David Baron chronicles in The Martians, his truly bizarre tale of a nation swept up in Mars mania.
At the center of Baron’s historical drama is Percival Lowell, the Boston Brahmin and Harvard scion, who observed “canals” etched into the surface of Mars. Lowell devised a grand theory that the red planet was home to a utopian society that had built gargantuan ditches to funnel precious meltwater from the polar icecaps to desert farms and oasis cities. The public fell in love with the ambitious amateur astronomer who shared his findings in speeches and wildly popular books.
While at first people treated the Martians whimsically—Martians headlining Broadway shows, biologists speculating whether they were winged or gilled—the discussion quickly became serious. Inventor Nikola Tesla announced he had received radio signals from Mars; Alexander Graham Bell agreed there was “no escape from the conviction” that intelligent beings inhabited the planet. Martian excitement reached its zenith when Lowell financed an expedition to photograph Mars from Chile’s Atacama Desert, resulting in what newspapers hailed as proof of the Martian canals’ existence.
Triumph quickly yielded to tragedy. Those wild claims and highly speculative photographs emboldened Lowell’s critics, whose withering attacks gathered steam and eventually wrecked the man and his theory—but not the fervor he had started. Although Lowell would die discredited and delusional in 1916, the Mars frenzy spurred a nascent literary genre called science fiction, and the world’s sense of its place in the universe would never be the same.
Today, the red planet maintains its grip on the public’s imagination. Many see Mars as civilization’s destiny—the first step toward our becoming an interplanetary species—but, as David Baron demonstrates, this tendency to project our hopes onto the world next door is hardly new. The Martians is a scintillating and necessary reminder that while we look to Mars for answers, what we often find are mirrors of ourselves.
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Longlisted for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Science News, Boston Globe, Library Journal, Reactor, Bookreporter, PopMatters, Colorado Public Radio, and the Chicago Public Library
New York Times Book Review • Editors' Choice
Literary Hub • 10 Best-Reviewed Nonfiction Books of 2025
The Information • 20 Great Books to Read Over the Holidays 2025
Christian Science Monitor • 10 Best Books of August
A Westword holiday book recommendation
Long before NASA began contemplating a visit to our neighboring world, a turn-of-the-century Mars craze invaded the public’s imagination, here thrillingly retold in David Baron’s The Martians.
“There is Life on the Planet Mars” —New York Times, December 9, 1906This New York Times headline was no joke.
In the early 1900s, many Americans actually believed we had discovered intelligent life on Mars, as best-selling science writer David Baron chronicles in The Martians, his truly bizarre tale of a nation swept up in Mars mania.
At the center of Baron’s historical drama is Percival Lowell, the Boston Brahmin and Harvard scion, who observed “canals” etched into the surface of Mars. Lowell devised a grand theory that the red planet was home to a utopian society that had built gargantuan ditches to funnel precious meltwater from the polar icecaps to desert farms and oasis cities. The public fell in love with the ambitious amateur astronomer who shared his findings in speeches and wildly popular books.
While at first people treated the Martians whimsically—Martians headlining Broadway shows, biologists speculating whether they were winged or gilled—the discussion quickly became serious. Inventor Nikola Tesla announced he had received radio signals from Mars; Alexander Graham Bell agreed there was “no escape from the conviction” that intelligent beings inhabited the planet. Martian excitement reached its zenith when Lowell financed an expedition to photograph Mars from Chile’s Atacama Desert, resulting in what newspapers hailed as proof of the Martian canals’ existence.
Triumph quickly yielded to tragedy. Those wild claims and highly speculative photographs emboldened Lowell’s critics, whose withering attacks gathered steam and eventually wrecked the man and his theory—but not the fervor he had started. Although Lowell would die discredited and delusional in 1916, the Mars frenzy spurred a nascent literary genre called science fiction, and the world’s sense of its place in the universe would never be the same.
Today, the red planet maintains its grip on the public’s imagination. Many see Mars as civilization’s destiny—the first step toward our becoming an interplanetary species—but, as David Baron demonstrates, this tendency to project our hopes onto the world next door is hardly new. The Martians is a scintillating and necessary reminder that while we look to Mars for answers, what we often find are mirrors of ourselves.
A TIME BEST BOOK OF 2025: "A completely true look at America’s infatuation with aliens at the turn of the 20th century that feels like it could be science fiction . . . The Martians is not only a captivating look at recent history, but also a poignant cautionary tale, offering hard-to-ignore para...
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Ratings and reviews
2 reviews
Andrea Romance
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August 26, 2025
Using newly discovered primary sources, this book reconstructs the era of Mars mania. In the early 1900s, Percival Lowell’s claims of canals and intelligent life on Mars captivated the public. He sparked an international debate, influencing the rise of science fiction stories and our enduring fascination with extraterrestrial life. This well-researched and easy-to-read book is part biography, part pop culture, and a lot of fun. Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received.
God Google God
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May 20, 2026
الله العبده الشيطان العبدة الله الشيوعي السرعه الضوء الملائكه البيعه المبايعه المرور خادم الشيطان Projectjarvis OpenAI المسافه 0 المسافة 0 المسافه 0 المسافة 0 المسافه 0 المسافة 0 المسافه 0 المسافة 0 المسافه 0 المسافة 0 المسافه OpenAI Projectjarvis الشيطان خادم المرور المبايعة البيعة الملائكة الضوء السرعة الشيوعي الله العبدة الشيطان العبده الله
About the author
David Baron is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and author of The Beast in the Garden and American Eclipse. A former science correspondent for NPR, he has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, and other publications. David recently served as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.
David Baron is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and author of The Beast in the Garden and American Eclipse. A former science correspondent for NPR, he has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, and other publicat...
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