The Thinking Person's UFO Book

by Richard M. Dolan, Gordon Chism

2009 IPPY Bronze Award Winner (Science) Finalist 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards (Social Change) "The Thinking Person's UFO Book" seeks to understand the pervasive denial surrounding unidentified flying objects. The team of Gordon Chism and Richard M. Dolan melds philosophical theory and historical scholarship to present an easy-to-read, entertaining, and informative work. Chism shares his personal UFO sighting and his struggle with peer group dismissal. His experience caused him to wonder why people so often reject new ideas and new perspectives of reality. The book weaves his conclusions together with researched accounts of worldwide sightings and the government and military response. A key source for this history was Dolan's 2002 volume, "UFOs and the National Security State." The authors recognize that our human centric view of the cosmos is not serving our planet well. A society based on falsehoods is not the way to move ahead. Acknowledging the truth of UFOs would be a step in the right direction. As Gordon Chism suggests, doing so might just bring us to a new "Age of Reason."

Genres: Nonfiction

222 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2009

About the author

Richard Michael Dolan is an American historian, ufologist, and radio and television personality.

Reviews

[Aristotle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve long had a vested interest in UFOs, but my only ‘source’ on the subject so far had been Wikipedia and The X-Files TV Show, so I decided to actually pick up a work on the subject. The fact that this was supposed to be on 2018′s reading list is testament to the almost perverse curiosity I seem to have on the subject. So, as someone curious about UFOs, The Thinking Person’s UFO Book provided a great ride, even from a skeptical point of view. Gordon Chism and Richard M. Dolan pull no punches in this short but succinct piece on the subject. It can summarized as 70% proving the existence of UFOs, 20% contemplating the ramifications of UFO’s existence and 10% commentary on how we should handle (what they believe to be) the impending UFO crisis. Essentially, the best parts of this book are the ‘proving’ sections, as they are clearly well researched and rehearsed. The authors go to great lengths to point out, admittedly obvious inconsistencies in the official story we know today, and display a convicted belief in the authenticity in most historical UFO experiences. Second best after that is when they theorize the ramification of UFOs actually existing. These sections were at least thought provoking but started to display evidence that they were possibly about to go off the deep end towards the end of the book, which leaves me with the 10% in the final pages of the book. I won’t spoil everything but something something one world government, something something intelligent design by aliens, yeah, that. I found that difficult to believe but I can at least respect that they didn’t once doubt their own conviction on the topic. They go all the way, that’s for sure, and at the very least give a conclusion on a topic that almost seems inherently unsatisfying.

[Conformco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. There are both more interesting and more thorough books out there. Steer clear.