Hollow Earth The Long and Curious History of Imagining Strange Lands, Fantastical Creatures, Advanced Civilizations, and Marvelous Machines Below the Earth's Surface

by Standish, David

• ISBN13: 9780306815331
• ISBN10: 0306815338
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-03
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Summary

Beliefs in mysterious underworlds are as old as humanity. But the idea that the earth has a hollow interior was first proposed as a scientific theory in 1691 by Sir Edmond Halley (of comet fame), who suggested that there might be life down there as well.Hollow Earthtraces the surprising, marvelous, and just plain weird permutations his ideas have taken over the centuries. From science fiction to utopian societies and even religions,Hollow Earthtravels through centuries and cultures, exploring how each era's relationship to the idea of a hollow earth mirrored its hopes, fears, and values. Illustrated with everything from seventeenth-century maps to 1950s pulp art to movie posters and more,Hollow Earthis for anyone interested in the history of strange ideas that just won't go away.

Author Biography

David Standish teaches magazine writing at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 9
Introduction	p. 11
Hollow Science	p. 15
Symmes' Holes	p. 39
Polar Gothic: Reynolds and Poe	p. 87
Jules Verne: A Journey to the Center of Geology	p. 109
Cyrus Teed and Koreshanity	p. 143
Hollow Utopias, Romances, and a Little Kiddie Lit	p. 187
Edgar Rice Burroughs at the Earth's Core	p. 241
The Hollow Earth Lives: Evil Nazis, Flying Saucers, Superman, New Age Utopias	p. 267
Bibliography	p. 290
Index	p. 298
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.