A Short List of Selected Resources on UFOs
UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry (Anomalist Books: 2012) by Dr. Michael Swords, a retired professor who taught at Western Michigan University for 30 years, and Robert Powell, with co-authors Clas Svahn, Vicente-Juan Ballester-Olmos, Bill Chalker, Barry Greenwood, Richard Thieme, Jan Aldrich and Steve Purcell – from reviewers: “This is the best book about the UFO phenomena that was ever written” and “UFOs and Government is a triumph of sober, conscientious scholarship unlikely to be equaled for years go come”
The UFO Encyclopedia : The Phenomenon from the Beginning (2 Volume Set) by Jerome Clark. Omnigraphics. 1998. – The best by a serious thoughtful scholar. The two volume set is superior to anything in the field.
The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial by Jerome Clark. Visible Ink. New York. 1998. An abridged version of the encyclopedia.
The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry by J. Allen Hynek (1975, reissued Marlowe and Company 1998) – A plea by an astronomer and respected scientist for the scientific method to be applied to UFO data, with clear criteria for doing so, above all, eliminating reports from consideration which can not be analyzed appropriately.
The controversy over unidentified flying objects in America: 1896-1973 by David Jacobs (Thesis – University of Wisconsin, Madison: 1973) – A historical review for a Ph. D. in history by a man who became a professor of History at Temple University and – much later – immersed himself in the study of abduction experience. Until “UFOs and Government,” the best history of the subject available, although now dated.
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects by Edward J. Ruppelt (Ace Books: 1956) – (compare first and second editions) – a thoughtful reflection on his experience as an early head of the USAF Project Blue Book. Still one of the best resources.
The UFO Evidence – Volume 2 : A Thirty Year Report by Richard H. Hall on behalf of NICAP (The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) is a classic, with numerous incidents analyzed and a taxonomy of vehicles reported by witnesses. This edition (if you can find it and afford it) is best. Hall also wrote Uninvited Guests (Aurora Press. 1988), a popular account.
The UFO Enigma by Dr. Peter A. Sturrock. Warner Books. 1999. and A Tale of Two Sciences: Memoirs of a Dissident Scientist. Exoscience: Palo Alto CA. 2009. – Two mature, thoughtful works by a recognized physicist whose fine work with plasmas was in the open and whose research with UFO and other anomalous phenomena was not. The latter book documents his frustration with trying to do science which was not acceptable to the academy. See my review at www.thiemeworks.com.
The Myth and Mystery of UFOs by Thomas E. Bullard (University Press of Kansas: 2010). A fine scholarly work which emphasizes the social and cultural contexts of UFO experience and reports in relationship to history and myth. The emphasis is on how a percept travels through humans –bodies, communities, frames of thought, constructions of reality – and is transformed along the way into acceptable concepts. The author concludes that the phenomena is real, compelling, and demands serious investigation and study.
CE-5: Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind by Richard F. Haines, Ph. D. (Sourcebooks Inc. 1999) – A compendium by a NASA psychologist of encounters that suggest intelligent interaction between anomalous vehicles and people. Haines has also documented encounters by airline pilots and produced a compendium of 3500 cases. (google NARCAP for details and other publications)
The Missing Times: News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-up by Terry Hansen. Xlibris: 2000. – A journalist explores the failure of the mainstream media to cover the phenomena in a serious way.
Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis by Paul R. Hill. Hampton Roads Publishing Company. 1995. A veteran at NASA, he was allowed to collect reports inside the agency for years on the condition that he keep it quiet. His daughter posthumously published this attempt to understand the physics of the characteristics shown by anomalous vehicles within the constraints of science that had not yet advanced to a level appropriate to account for the reported data.
Incident at Exeter. John G. Fuller. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1966. A popular account of a major incident. It all depends on the reports and data, of course.
The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stonor Saunders. The New Press. New York. 1999. (published in the UK under the title “Who Paid the Piper? by Granta Publications. – Nothing on UFOs here but illuminates methods and covert action by the early CIA in the realm of the social sciences and art worlds. Good for contextual understanding of the CIA in the 1950s-1960s.
The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident: Three Texans are Injured During an Encounter with a UFO and Military Helicopters by John F. Schuessler. (Self-published 1998) A well-documented incident which calls into question the accountability of government units to or for physical injuries during an unusual experience which may have involved radioactivity.
Encounter at Buff Ledge: A UFO Case History by Walter N. Webb (J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies: 1994). A fascinating account of an abduction experience recalled independently by the two who experienced it. The result of ten years of thorough, serious, responsible investigation, this incident ranks with the Hill case and the story of three women in Stanford, Kentucky in 1976 (http://ufos.about.com/od/bestufocasefiles/p/stanford.htm) for those interested in the abduction phenomena. Also see the Betty and Barney Hill case in 1961, the Pascagoula MS incident in 1973, and the Travis Walton incident in 1975.
Google or read at www.thiemeworks.com:
“How to Build a UFO … Story” by Richard Thieme. originally published in Internet Underground and anthologized in numerous collections.
“Are There UFOs on Mars?” by Richard Thieme, at www.thiemeworks.com, with a collection of interviews