The Martians

The True Story of an Alien Craze That Captured Turn-of-the-Century America

By: David Baron

Narrated by: Rob Greenbaum

In the early 1900s, many Americans actually believed we had discovered intelligent life on Mars, as bestselling science writer David Baron chronicles in The Martians, his truly bizarre tale of a nation swept up in Mars mania.

At the center of Baron's historical drama is Percival Lowell, the Boston Brahmin and Harvard scion, who observed "canals" etched into the surface of Mars. Lowell devised a grand theory that the red planet was home to a utopian society that had built gargantuan ditches to funnel precious meltwater from the polar icecaps to desert farms and oasis cities. The public fell in love with the ambitious amateur astronomer who shared his findings in speeches and wildly popular books.

While at first people treated the Martians whimsically―Martians headlining Broadway shows, biologists speculating whether they were winged or gilled―the discussion quickly became serious. Inventor Nikola Tesla announced he had received radio signals from Mars; Alexander Graham Bell agreed there was "no escape from the conviction" that intelligent beings inhabited the planet. Martian excitement reached its zenith when Lowell financed an expedition to photograph Mars from Chile's Atacama Desert, resulting in what newspapers hailed as proof of the Martian canals' existence.

©2025 David Baron (P)2025 Highbridge Audio

Our desire to chase our dreams

I didn’t dislike anything about this book. It was an engrossing story tying together many aspects of our wish to find wonders and explain mysteries. Also, I liked learning about Lowell and his visions.

Goo-glee-elmo Marconi. Really?

This isn't Librivox but a paid subscription service. Is it too much to expect that narrators should make an effort to pronounce foreign names somewhat accurarely? All they have to do is look the person up on Wikipedia.

Interesting look at the past views of Mars

I greatly enjoyed this look back at the humans who seriously believed that there was a sophisticated civilization on Mars, especially about Percival Lowell. The author is well informed about the history of astronomy, telescopes, and the ways that people think (individually and as a group), and writes in a clear and engaging way. The reader was clear, and gave the listener the impression that he really understood what he was reading. It was very easy to understand him, and through him, the author. My only issue with the reader is that someone should have kept him from doing accents. He should never, ever have been allowed to do accents. That being said, if he was reading anything at all that did not involve accents, I would be very happy to listen.

Good info, but

I didn't like the fake accents at the narrator did. Also, it was all about Lowell and less about Mars.

Good Book, Poor Narration

This book focuses on an interesting topic (the widespread belief circa 1900 that Mars was inhabited by intelligent, human-like life) and an intriguing, if arrogant and intellectually flawed, individual--Percival Lowell (1855-1916). What detracts significantly from this book is the narrator, specifically his attempts at various accents (French, German, Italian, British), which are pretty dreadful (his narration is otherwise fine). Perhaps somebody thought that these accents would make the narration more dramatic (maybe akin to the radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds"?), but--at least for this listener--they were very distracting.