I'm Alan Alder, and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

So as early as 1877 or so, people were starting to talk in a sort of joking way about these canals on Mars,

but no one really knew what they were. It wasn't until 1894 that an American astronomer

named Percival Lowell came on the scene. He also saw these lines on Mars, and he was the person

who first suggested that they were, in fact, canals, that they were artificial irrigation canals.

And according to the theory, these Martians were more advanced than we were.

They were evolutionarily ahead of us.

And there were times, in fact, when the Martians were depicted with wings, looking down over Earth as if they were angels.

So it was both these strange things being seen on Mars

and this theory about the possibility of a Martian civilization

and I think this great desire among many people

to want to believe that the Martians were really there.

That's journalist and author David Barron.

He spent some seven years traveling the globe, researching his new book, The Martians,

the true story of an alien craze that captured turn-of-the-century America.

Congratulations on this wonderful book that details this period in our history, the turn of the century from 1800s to 1900s, when so many people were absolutely certain that there was intelligent life on Mars.

What do you suppose began that strange fascination?

Well, I mean, my book is as much about humans as it is about Martians. And I think really it, the story is both what people were seeing on Mars and what people were perceiving on Earth. And both aspects are important. So in terms of what was going on in astronomy, it really all began in 1877 when Mars made an especially

close approach to Earth. So every 26 months, Earth and Mars come close together. And about

every 15 years, they come especially close together. In 1877, it was one of those years, which

meant it was especially easy to see Mars through an Earthbound telescope. And 1877, it was one of those years, which meant it was especially easy to see Mars

through an earthbound telescope. And when that happened in 1877, an Italian astronomer

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