Geographies of Mars

Download or read book Geographies of Mars written by K. Maria D. Lane and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume "explores the origins of our Martian obsession in the late nineteenth century" and examines "the way turn-of-the-century Americans and Europeans thought about space, knowledge, and power." The author paints a picture of how "scientists and the public saw [Mars] around the beginning of the 20th century, when canals on the Red Planet seemed a very real possibility." It is a story of mountain observatories, of fieldwork conducted at a distance, and of how Mars's geographers sought social and scientific legitimacy, exploring how astronomy and geography intersected in the debates over the existence of life on Mars.