Buy used:
$19.19
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 9. Order within 6 hrs 3 mins
Used: Like New | Details
Sold by Happy BrewBooker
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Like New
Comment: Like new. Book and cover are in LN condition.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and Amazon Prime.

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you grow your business. Learn more about the program.

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Benson Saler
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

UFO CRASH AT ROSWELL Hardcover – July 17, 1997

by SALER BENSON (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 11 ratings
See all formats and editions
An anthropological study of the alleged UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico, treats the story as a modern myth that reflects popular beliefs in the omnipotence of technology, the duplicity of governments, and the existence of superior beings. UP.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    198 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Smithsonian
  4. Publication date
    July 17, 1997
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1560987510
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1560987512
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's not just skeptics who will relish this examination of the supposed crash of a UFO near Roswell, N. Mex., in 1947, and of the myth that has grown up around it. The crash and the alleged ensuing cover-up by the U.S. government has become a lynchpin among conspiracy theorists and those who believe in invading aliens. The three authors, all university professors, never deny the possibility that there was in fact a crash of an alien spacecraft, with alien victims (though they point toward the crash of a military balloon as a more likely explanation for the Roswell phenomenon). They argue, however, that the Roswell "technomyth" serves several functions as a "folk narrative," including the reinforcement of beliefs in omnipotent beings, and the channeling of anti-government sentiment. The myth, they say, is carefully and contentiously tended by a community of "ufologists" who act as "culture heroes" in attempting to liberate the truth from the government's clutches. One chapter further argues that the myth and community have many of the hallmarks of a religion. Despite its impeccable explanations about myths, however, the book's turgid prose will do little to dissuade the vast number Americans who believe that extraterrestrials have landed on Earth.

Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The UFO community strongly believes that the U.S. government has suppressed information about a supposed flying saucer crash near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. Here, a group of anthropologists look at the mythological aspects of the modern-day folk tale and show how accounts of "documented" events can evolve over time: a portion of the account remains accurate, while other parts get distorted, repressed, or expanded. They note that an event's mythological aspects are perpetrated by television docudramas and UFO authors. Cited among the latter group are Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt (The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell, LJ 6/1/94) and Stanton T. Friedman (Top Secret Majic, LJ 10/1/96). Both groups reinforce conspiracy theories by using supposition and conjecture as fact. A detailed analysis of 1947 balloon flight experiments provides a possible basis for the myth. The book's academic tone, however, will appeal to a scholarly audience rather than UFO buffs. [In this anniversary year, see also Philip Corso's The Day After Roswell and Michael Hesemann and Phillip Mantle's Beyond Roswell, both LJ 7/97.?Ed.]?Gary D. Barber, SUNY at Fredonia Lib.
-?Gary D. Barber, SUNY at Fredonia Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Smithsonian; First Edition (July 17, 1997)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 198 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1560987510
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1560987512
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 11 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Benson Saler

Benson Saler

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
11 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Karl
5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2023
Verified Purchase
Well-sourced, and the best book on the Roswell incident that I have read so far.
Helpful
 Report
HosteenHoskieBegay
4.0 out of 5 stars Roswell and JFK nonsense
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2014
Verified Purchase
Grew up in Albuquerque. Remember this well. Wasn't anything but a high altitude balloon array with radar reflectors for tracking and instrumentation listening for A bomb tests by the USSR. All the dead alien and UFO nonsense is kept alive by individuals out to make a buck or gain notoriety. Nothing but a pack of lying liars who took a relatively ordinary event and added on their own set of lies to sell something. The same idiots who think their was a huge conspiracy to kill JFK. See Vincent Bugliosi's "Reclaiming History" for the definitive account of Kennedy's assassination. One shooter, three shots fired, first shot missed completely,Kennedy hit twice, John Connally hit once by same bullet that hit Kennedy in the back. There was no "magic bullet" and multiple shooters. Jim Garrison was a nutty psychopath and Kevin Costner is an idiot for playing the nut. Never liked him after JFK.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Chris Hansen
5.0 out of 5 stars Two books in one!
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2009
This unique book deserves all the attention it can get. Title-browsers might be put off by the large-typed UFO CRASH and miss the small print underneath: The Genesis of a Modern Myth. This is, in fact, an anthropological study of the origins of the Roswell UFO myth, and an analysis of UFO cultism and mythogenesis in general.

There's another, quite different book embedded, though: Charles Moore's detailed account of the Alamogordo balloon experiments in 1947. Moore really, REALLY knows what he is talking about and his chapter should make old radiosonde techs' little commutator bars switch excitedly upon reading all the information divulged here for the first time.

Project Mogul was one of the almost desperate, worldwide technological attempts to obtain data of expected Soviet nuclear tests in the late 1940s. It was envisaged that constant-pressure balloons drifting for long periods in the stratosphere could telemeter acoustic data from special microphones to ground stations. The scientists tried (but failed) to get an acoustic signal from the British attempt to blow Heligoland off the map in 1947, but they did get a signal from some of the Pacific nuclear tests.

A weather balloon is made of neoprene; it expands until it pops, at as much as 100,000 feet. To get a constant-volume balloon, special materials (e.g. polyethylene) have to be used, but due to the unavailability of such balloons at the time, the first experiments were run using giant trains of 24 weather balloons arranged in a ring. They lifted standard radar reflectors (the three-surface orthogonal flimsy things) as well as radiosondes since radar tracking was sometimes used in lieu of radiotheodolite.

Moore demonstrates convincingly that one of these rigs landed on the famous Foster's ranch, and in time, turned into a crashed UFO with four (sometimes five) dead (sometimes alive) spacemen. Moore even includes the winds-aloft tables, and a detailed description of the reflectors, which fits perfectly with the original accounts from Roswell.

Obviously this account could not have been written until Project Mogul was declassified. Indeed, Moore didn't even know what he was working on. He thought it was meteorological research. Lots of scientists over the years have been in that boat.

Moore says balloon-borne acoustic detection was abandoned, but that's not the whole story. Constant-volume balloons were used for surveillance in the early Cold War. The Russians found some of them. They didn't think they were of extraterrestrial origin.

The second and totally different part of the book, the anthropological study, is also interesting. It recounts how the myth developed and expanded over the years in a punctuated equilibrium. It often happens that after the first flurry of nonsense is laid to rest, a few decades later some dude rediscovers it and spins an even longer yarn from it. Pretty soon you have a completely self-referential body of mythology unfalsifiable my human means.

The authors demonstrate how con artists played a significant role in getting the story off the ground. In later years they were assisted by TV exploitation shows. But an equally useful part of the study is the "comparative religion" analysis. Why do people believe such stuff? For it is clear that the UFO cult has most of the paraphernalia of religion. Ziegler reaches far and wide, compares to vampires of old and the recent profusion of angels. He even goes back to the Celsus/St Justin row ca. 178 AD.

Ziegler has a number of academically correct ways of expressing the idea that it is a vanishingly small proportion of humans who care about truth; as for the rest, they want stories. Since these stories arise to meet deep social and psychological needs, those who expose the truth are the enemy - in this case, the government, with its diabolical cover story about balloons!

But we don't have to talk about spacemen to figure that out. Roswell is just a really good example of modern mythogenesis. This book is a terrific study!
11 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Begreadone
4.0 out of 5 stars Can't tell the players with out a scorecard...
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2001
...This book takes the story only to the mid-'90's, but that's enough to get a glimpse of what Imre Lakatos would call a "degenerating research programme." Mercifully, Philip Corso and the whole MJ-12 mess came later and we are spared a pointless examination in this book.
Everyone interested in Roswell owes it to themselves to read this book, it details the evolution of the myth while providing info. on Project MOGUL. My personal gripe is that the author's maintain a pose of agnosticism while I'm sure they are all skeptical of the "myth."
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Preppy S.
3.0 out of 5 stars The title looks more interesting than the actual book.
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2003
this book is very dry to read. On the other hand, it was published by the Smithsonian, so what can you expect. It is suppose to be scientific.
It really doesn't have a lot analysis about the actual incident. Instead, The first chapter has lots of analysis about why people want to believe it, and why it persists, etc. I think that it is quite boring. I want to read why they think that it did not happen. I do not need to read the analysis of about this almost religious like phenomena.
The second chapter talked about the weather balloon, etc. I think that it is totally irrelevant. I think that the government has explained twice. The first time, it was the weather balloon. The second time, it was something else, which at that time was classified military secret. So if the last time, the government already said that it is not a weather balloon, what is the purpose to tell the readers about the weather balloon experiments at that time.
Also this book failed to explain all those rumors about this incident. It tried to discredit all those reports. On the other hand, the other side have listed many credible people's reports. This book did not explain how those people's descriptions can not be ture.
At last, it insisted that the government has given the public all the possible documents about this incident. Then how come so many documents that are released to the public have pages after pages of blacked areas. What kind of government secrets that still can't be declassified after almost 50 years?
I am neither a believer or non-believer, however, this book did not convince me that Roswell incident did not happen.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Linda Chase
5.0 out of 5 stars Food for thought....
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2000
Fascinating expose of the facts re:Roswell, and an interesting look into the genesis of what may have become an "urban legend"....I was a firm believer in all the media hype concerning UFOs - (as searchers, we fervently WISH to believe) - but after delving into this book without preconceived ideas (as much as that is possible), I now have a very different way of collating the "evidence", and a fresh set of questions! Extremely interesting - starts a whole new dialogue with one's self as to what is real versus what we WISH to be real....and the conclusion is left up to us in the long run...
16 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report