Abstract
In 1947, ‘flying saucers’ emerged as a subject of public, and sometimes scientific, controversy (Figure 12.1). Since that time, a number of historians and sociologists have tried to understand the emergence of this phenomenon on the margins of science. This essay aims to raise questions about how social scientists have studied the subject.
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Neil J. Smelser, Theory of Collective Behavior, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962, 90;
Tom D. Crouch, Aiming for the Stars: The Dreamers and Doers of the Space Age, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999, 119;
Roland Barthes, Mythologies, Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1957, 42: ‘Le mystère des Soucoupes volantes a d’abord été tout terrestre: on supposait que la soucoupe venait de l’inconnu soviétique, de ce monde aussi privé d’intentions claires qu’une autre planète.’ I wish to thank most sincerely Alexander Geppert and James Miller, for their astute comments and English corrections. This chapter is respectfully dedicated to the memory of William C. Bequette, who helped start it all.
Howard Becker, Outsiders, New York: Free Press, 1963;
Jean-Claude Schmitt, ‘Les “superstitions,”’ in Jacques Le Goff and René Rémond, eds, Histoire de la France religieuse, Volume 1: Des dieux de la Gaule à la papauté d’Avignon, Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1988, 417–551.
George H. Gallup, The Gallup Poll Public Opinion, 1935–1971, Volume 1: 1935–1948, New York: Random House, 1972, 666. The first question asked: ‘Have you read or heard about “flying saucers”?’ According to the poll, 90 percent replied in the affirmative.
Anders Liljegren and Clas Svahn, ‘The Ghost Rockets,’ in Hilary Evans and John Spencer, eds, UFOs, 1947–1987: The 40-Years Search for an Explanation, London: Fortean Times, 1987, 32–8.
See, for example, Loren E. Gross, ‘Ghost Rockets of 1946,’ in Ron Story, ed., The UFO Encyclopedia, London: New English Library, 1980, 147–8.
Paul Lashmar, Spy Flights of the Cold War, Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996, 88–9.
Michael Ashley, The History of the Science Fiction Magazine, Volume 1: 1926–1935, Chicago, IL: Henry Regnery, 1974.
Stephen J. Dick, The Biological Universe: The Twentieth-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, 267, 271–2;
Jerome Clark, ‘Meeting the Extraterrestrials: How the ETH Was Invented,’ in Dennis Stacy and Hilary Evans, eds, UFOs, 1947–1997: From Arnold to the Abductees: Fifty Years of Flying Saucers, London: Fortean Times, 1997, 69.
Marjorie Hope Nicholson, Voyages to the Moon, New York: Macmillan, 1948, 257.
See Daniel J. Kevles, The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.
Gerard P. Kuiper, ed., The Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1949.
For a beautiful case study that shows how actors, both human and non-human, construct their social and natural worlds, see Michel Callon, ‘Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay,’ in John Law, ed., Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge?, London: Routledge, 1986, 196–223.
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© 2012 Pierre Lagrange
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Lagrange, P. (2012). A Ghost in the Machine: How Sociology Tried to Explain (Away) American Flying Saucers and European Ghost Rockets, 1946–1947. In: Geppert, A.C.T. (eds) Imagining Outer Space. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230361362_12
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