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stephenmeansme's review
3.0
This might be the best example of a well-researched failure to maintain a neutral point of view (NPOV). David M. Jacobs tries so very, very hard in this book to present an unbiased picture of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), investigations of UFO sightings, and the "controversy" surrounding UFOs and the United States Air Force. He tries hard, and unfortunately still lands on one side of the fence. The one with the saucer shaped bull-puckies.
Now, this book would be a useful resource for a UFO-phenomenon researcher. Aside from a rather hagiographic portrayal of J. Allen Hynek (who also wrote the foreword) as an "only sane man" type who straddled the entire modern era (1945-1975, ish) of UFO reports and investigations, Jacobs draws from a vast array of primary sources and includes extensive notes and a bibliography. What makes it interesting is how Jacobs' interpretation weights the evidence towards the "there's something out there" conclusion.
His observations include an interesting portrayal of the USAF and US scientific establishment as rather condescending towards the general public. For all the lamentations in the 1980s onward about how Americans no longer take science seriously, scientists sure didn't seem to take Americans seriously for decades on end! Jacobs is careful to point out all the rushing to explain (explain away) UFOs as "obviously" the planet Venus, or temperature inversion, or (infamously) swamp gas. Very little care is given to the problems of faulty memory, spontaneous rumor, petty fraud, or even subtle mental illness, by either the scientists or the more sympathetic Jacobs. All to much weight is put on the "credibility" of the observer, which maybe proves that they were honest in their account, but doesn't rule out that they were honestly mistaken about what they experienced.
Jacobs is also (as the entire "serious" UFO community was) extremely dismissive of the "contactees," who claimed to be in communion with the "space brothers." This is hilarious in retrospect because contact and abduction are giant elements of the modern UFO scene, if people don't jump to magical excuses for why it's so hard (impossible) to find physical evidence of UFOs (the craft, not just the "phenomena"), they tend to invent global conspiracies and coverups instead. But even back then the contactees were a major element that shouldn't have been ignored just because the "nuts and bolts" crowd (rightly) decided they were too silly to take seriously.
The other major oversight, if not quite an omission, was Jacobs' missing the outsized role Ray Palmer, editor of AMAZING STORIES, played with his pimping of the "Shaver mystery." That is, according to one Richard Shaver (and possibly also Ray Palmer ghostwriting as Shaver), evil dwarfish robots from under the earth are sending UFOs to torment humanity, and there's a connection to Atlantis/Lemuria and all sorts of nonsense. Palmer published Shaver's "I Remember Lemuria" right before the first "modern" UFO sighting, and absolutely flooded his magazine with saucer and contactee stories, letters (and "letters"), and essays. AMAZING had a wide circulation and Palmer launched several UFO-centric magazines (FATE and FLYING SAUCERS) to further promulgate UFO memes. Scientists, in-denial "nuts and bolts" ufologists, and historians like Jacobs don't take into sufficient account the folkloric aspects of the UFO phenomenon, and its role in "standardizing" the events and imagery. If a plurality of contact claims describe a "gray" alien (suspiciously, after the release of Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and Streiber's COMMUNION), that doesn't necessarily mean that "grays" are real, because the imagery was prominent in the popular culture before the claims started converging on the imagery.
Still, this is an interesting book. It's a bit dry (another stab at NPOV by Jacobs) but contains some useful anecdotes and lessons for modern skeptics and believers alike. I haven't read Hynek's book yet, but so far this is the best "sympathetic" UFO book I've read.
Now, this book would be a useful resource for a UFO-phenomenon researcher. Aside from a rather hagiographic portrayal of J. Allen Hynek (who also wrote the foreword) as an "only sane man" type who straddled the entire modern era (1945-1975, ish) of UFO reports and investigations, Jacobs draws from a vast array of primary sources and includes extensive notes and a bibliography. What makes it interesting is how Jacobs' interpretation weights the evidence towards the "there's something out there" conclusion.
His observations include an interesting portrayal of the USAF and US scientific establishment as rather condescending towards the general public. For all the lamentations in the 1980s onward about how Americans no longer take science seriously, scientists sure didn't seem to take Americans seriously for decades on end! Jacobs is careful to point out all the rushing to explain (explain away) UFOs as "obviously" the planet Venus, or temperature inversion, or (infamously) swamp gas. Very little care is given to the problems of faulty memory, spontaneous rumor, petty fraud, or even subtle mental illness, by either the scientists or the more sympathetic Jacobs. All to much weight is put on the "credibility" of the observer, which maybe proves that they were honest in their account, but doesn't rule out that they were honestly mistaken about what they experienced.
Jacobs is also (as the entire "serious" UFO community was) extremely dismissive of the "contactees," who claimed to be in communion with the "space brothers." This is hilarious in retrospect because contact and abduction are giant elements of the modern UFO scene, if people don't jump to magical excuses for why it's so hard (impossible) to find physical evidence of UFOs (the craft, not just the "phenomena"), they tend to invent global conspiracies and coverups instead. But even back then the contactees were a major element that shouldn't have been ignored just because the "nuts and bolts" crowd (rightly) decided they were too silly to take seriously.
The other major oversight, if not quite an omission, was Jacobs' missing the outsized role Ray Palmer, editor of AMAZING STORIES, played with his pimping of the "Shaver mystery." That is, according to one Richard Shaver (and possibly also Ray Palmer ghostwriting as Shaver), evil dwarfish robots from under the earth are sending UFOs to torment humanity, and there's a connection to Atlantis/Lemuria and all sorts of nonsense. Palmer published Shaver's "I Remember Lemuria" right before the first "modern" UFO sighting, and absolutely flooded his magazine with saucer and contactee stories, letters (and "letters"), and essays. AMAZING had a wide circulation and Palmer launched several UFO-centric magazines (FATE and FLYING SAUCERS) to further promulgate UFO memes. Scientists, in-denial "nuts and bolts" ufologists, and historians like Jacobs don't take into sufficient account the folkloric aspects of the UFO phenomenon, and its role in "standardizing" the events and imagery. If a plurality of contact claims describe a "gray" alien (suspiciously, after the release of Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and Streiber's COMMUNION), that doesn't necessarily mean that "grays" are real, because the imagery was prominent in the popular culture before the claims started converging on the imagery.
Still, this is an interesting book. It's a bit dry (another stab at NPOV by Jacobs) but contains some useful anecdotes and lessons for modern skeptics and believers alike. I haven't read Hynek's book yet, but so far this is the best "sympathetic" UFO book I've read.
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