When Mars mania grabbed America

A century earlier than NASA rovers rambled throughout the dusty regolith of Mars and earlier than Elon Musk set his sights on terraforming the rusty world, Americans have been already captivated by the crimson planet. In The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America, award-winning science author David Baron resurrects the forgotten period of “Mars mania,” when main scientists, inventors, and abnormal residents have been satisfied our photo voltaic system neighbor was inhabited by little inexperienced males.

Baron, writer of American Eclipse and The Beast within the Garden, recounts the origins of Martian mania, starting within the late nineteenth century with Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli’s experiences of enigmatic “canali” on the Martian floor. His observations have been mistranslated as “canals,” igniting hypothesis that clever beings had engineered large waterways to outlive a dying planet. From there, hypothesis snowballed. The rich Boston Brahmin Percival Lowell staked his profession and fortune on proving the existence of Martians, constructing an observatory in Arizona to map their supposed canals. Newspapers and magazines ran with the story, printing sensational illustrations of insectoid Martians and cities etched into the desert panorama.

The guide reveals how outstanding figures of the age, together with Alexander Graham Bell and Wall Street titan J.P. Morgan, have been drawn into the Martian craze. Wireless radio pioneer Nikola Tesla speculated his innovations would possibly enable direct communication with Martians, blurring the road between science and fantasy. For greater than a decade, critical establishments and sober-minded thinkers embraced an concept that as we speak appears fantastical.

Baron writes with each humor and sympathy for the period’s dreamers, emphasizing that the Martian obsession mirrored the anxieties and aspirations of a society in speedy upheaval. Industrialization, scientific discovery, and shifting cultural norms left many greedy for that means. Mars grew to become a canvas onto which they projected their fears, hopes, and utopian beliefs. At dinner events and on Broadway phases, “Martians” appeared in costume; in newspapers, they have been depicted as proof of progress, or omens of doom.

Ultimately, the mania collapsed beneath the burden of higher telescopes and sobering proof, forsaking disgraced scientists and bankrupt theories. However Baron argues, the legacy endures. The early fascination cemented Mars as humanity’s most compelling otherworldly neighbor, setting the stage for each trendy science fiction and as we speak’s billion-dollar exploration packages.

Guest:

David Baron is the writer of The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America. 

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This interview will air reside on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, at 12:30 p.m.