[.ca] The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750-1900 (ISBN 048640675X)

MAN'S HIGHEST HOPE AND FEAR AND LESSON:
Michael J. Crowe's "The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750-1900" is one of the most intellectually magnificent and philosophically enthralling books I have ever read, a supreme work of scholarship. It perfects the sensitive art of quotation and distillation, and the chronological arrangement of the encyclopedic material turns all of history into a common dialogue upon one of the very greatest ideas and problems there is to perplex and fascinate the mind and surround us with the mystery of natural possibilities that are both crazy and sublime. The book itself is like a universe of stellar minds contemplating the inverse puzzle of why there is life on Earth or any life at all. Despite its magnitude, I came to its last page with a melancholy regret that there was not more and more and more of it, but at least this was true of the jeweled depths it probed and illuminated, and which it etched in my memory.

Fascinating:
Contrary to what you might think, the idea of extraterrestrial life, and even intelligence is not new. In this book, Professor Crowe tracks the debate over extraterrestrial life throughout history, concentrating on the era of 1750 to 1900. Hoping from writer to writer, Crowe deeply covers each persons writing, and its implications in the debate. This book makes an excellent companion to "Plurality of Worlds" by Steven Dick, which mainly covers up to 1750. Among the fascinating stories I read in this book were those of the "Moon hoax" of R.A. Locke, and Martian canal controversy of the 1880s and '90s. I took away one star because the book is slow and wordy at times, and I wish the author had focused more upon what our ancestors thought extraterrestrials would look like. But, overall this is a great book, and I highly recommend it.