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Mars A Tour of the Human Imagination
Eric S. Rabkin
ISBN: 0-275-98719-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-98719-0
232 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 6/30/2005
List Price: $51.95 (UK Sterling Price: £35.95)
Discount Price: $25.98 Sale Price for U.S. Customers Only. Save 50%. Ends 12/31/2009.
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Mars has fascinated us since the time we emerged from the ooze and looked skyward. Both H.G. Wells and Orson Welles found it a source of inspiration, and were it not for Mars the television series My Favorite Martian would have to be called My Favorite Californian. Rabkin offers about 60 short chapters on the reasons why the Red Planet hangs over our science, our speculative literature (both good and bad), and our fantasies. He includes period illustrations of those involved, including Mars itself, and a nifty shot of Martin the Martian, foe of Bugs Bunny.
    —Popular Astronomy     July-September 2006
  • [T]his book contains a wealth of information... In particular, the sections on early ideas, theories and observers such as Copernicus, Kepler, Cassini, et al, are very informative, and this book is worth having as a reference on the Red Planet.
    —      00/00/00
  • [A]n interersting, informative, and different perspective on the planet.
    —B&F     anuary/February 2006
  • [P]robes the ways in which Mars has influenced not only the field of astronomy but also mythology, astrology, cultural and literary studies, and more.
    —Library Journal     5/1/2005
  • [O]ften clever and even enlightening....Comprehensive collections.
    —Choice     12/1/2005
Description: What is Mars? From the ancients to the present, we have imagined Mars repeatedly and studied it longingly. As scientific knowledge of Mars has changed, so has the cultural imagination of this celestial neighbors. The earth-centered beginnings of astronomy connected the blood-red planet with the God of War. The Copernican Revolution and a later, simple mistranslation from Italian supported fantastic visions of distant Mars as the abode of life variously bizarre, ideal, or malignant. In the work of H. G. Wells and Orson Welles, in books, films, radio, and television, Mars reflected not only eternal hopes and fears but then-current political realities. In recent years, NASA-fication has brought Mars home, imagining the Red Planet almost as an eighth continent of Earth, a candidate for exploration and exploitation both in fiction and in fact. Rabkin weaves a chronological tale of many threads, including mythology, astrology, astronomy, literary criticism, and cultural studies.
 Title Features:
More than 60 brief chapters focus on people, events, or phenomena concerning the eternal object of curiosity, Mars. This rich series of readable, illustrated chapters can be sampled at will for the fun of discovery, read sequentially as a connected history, or enjoyed as a resource for the contemplation. Featuring over 100 illustrations, this unique examination of humanity's most storied companion serves as a resource for the study of ourselves.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
    Acknowledgments
    Red Light in the Black Sky
    Starry Night
    Ancient Egypt: Har Decher
    The Idealized Solar System
    What Was A Planet?
    Mesopotamia: Negral
    Ancient Greece: Ares
    Ancient Rome: Mars
    The Sunset of Mars
    Changes in Venus
    Metaphorical Mars
    Ptolemy
    The Observation of the Planets
    Astrological Symbols
    Days of the Week
    Alchemy
    The Mars Symbol
    Nicolaus Copernicus: Reorganizing the Universe
    Johannes Kepler: Putting Mars in Its Place
    Galileo Galilei: Questions of Authority
    Evangelista Torricelli: How Space Became Empty
    Christian Huygens: Other Earths?
    Giovanni Cassini: Very, Very Carefully
    Isaac Newton: One Big Universe
    Mars on Their Minds
    Jonathan Swift: Imaginary Travels
    William Herschel: Stars and Mars
    The Solar System Today
    Asaph Hall: The Sons of Mars
    Giovanni Schiaparelli: Gaining in Translation
    Camille Flammarion: Astrophile Extraordinaire
    Percival Lowell: A Glorious Obsession
    Percival Lowell: Mapping Mars and Martians
    H.G. Wells: The War of the Worlds
    H.G. Wells: Another View From Mars
    A World Ready to Believe
    Mark Wicks: A Lowellian Utopia
    Edgar Rice Burroughs: Mars and America
    Mars: The Bar vrom Barsoom
    Dead Mars?
    Orson Wells: The War of the Worlds Broadcast
    Marvin the Martian: Playing sith Aliens
    Ray Bradbury: An American Fairyland
    George Pal: The War of the Worlds Again
    Spacecraft: Us v. Them
    Off to Camp
    Chemosphere
    Robert A. Heinlein: The Martian Savior
    Enter NASA
    My Favorite Martian
    The Age of Aquarius
    The Face on Mars
    Mars Attacks!
    Leaving Earth Behind
    Mars Today
    Phobos and Deimos Today
    Men Are from Mars
    The Nasafication of Mars
    Mars: The Eighth Continent
    Marscape
    Terraforming Mars
    Red Rover
    Water on Mars
    Land of Spirit and Opportunity
    August, 2003
    The Beagle Hasn't Landed
    A-Roving We Will Go
About the Author: Eric S. Rabkin teaches in the Department of English at the University of Michigan. He is the author (and editor) of more than 30 books on science fiction and writing, including Science Fiction: A Historical Anthology and The Fantastic in Literature, and more than 100 articles in scholarly and mainstream media.
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