COMMENT:In stretches, both very good and disappointing. The authors, a sociologist and a psychologist, give an extensive description of strange aerial sightings preceding flying saucers, particularly the airships and rockets in the US, Canada, New Zealand, England, and Sweden from the late 19th century till just after WW2. They make a good case that seeing strange objects in the sky and interpreting them according to current cultural expectations has a long history before flying saucers. They do not, however, go into the details of how flying saucers fit this pattern. The second part of the book, about UFO contact and abduction experiences, is weaker. The authors speculate that such reports come from "fantasy prone personalities," but only come up with superficial support for this hypothesis. Worse, they indulge in an extreme pragmatist philosophy of science which collapses truth onto therapy. The end result is a worthwhile but uneven book.
