Welcome to Mars: Politics, Pop Culture, and Weird Science in 1950s America

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Welcome to Mars is a captivating look at the culture of postwar America and its dream of limitless technological and human development. Utilizing declassified government archives, newspaper records, ad campaigns, and B-movies of the period, Hollings weaves an intricate web of Cold War politics, UFO scares, psychedelic research, and 1950s pop culture. From the atom bomb and suburban planning to the space race and little-green-men movies, Welcome to Mars shows the startling connections between science fact and science fiction, a feedback loop in which real technological advances and government experimentation gave rise to science fiction fantasy, which then fed new innovation and research. Table of ContentsIntroduction: Scenes From A History As Yet UnwrittenChapter 1–1947: Rebuilding LemuriaChapter 2–1948: Flying Saucers Over AmericaChapter 3–1949: Behaviour ModificationChapter 4–1950: Cheapness And SplendourChapter 5–1951: Absolute ElsewhereChapter 6–1952: Red PlanetChapter 7–1953: Other Tongues, Other FleshChapter 8–1954: Meet The MonstersChapter 9–1955: Popular MechanicsChapter 10–1956: ‘Greetings, My Friend!’Chapter 11–1957: Contact With SpaceChapter 12–1958: Mass HysteriaChapter 13–1959: Teenagers From Outer SpaceConclusion: Thinking the UnthinkableBibliographyIndexList of Illustrations

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