Nothing to See Here

Michael Hervey. UFOs, The American Scene. Hale, 1976.
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Ufology is such a fascinating, intellectually stimulating subject of such wide scope, that it is a marvel how many people manage to write such damn boring books about it. This is one such. It purports to be a survey of UFO activity in the USA from the 50 's to about 1971, with a few excursions into the prehistory of the subject. 1897 is dismissed with three cases , and it is symptomatic that one of these is the Hamilton "calfnapping" hoax. 

The bulk of the book is a strung-out rehash of lights in the sky; close encounter and contactee reports don't get a look in. Such a collection may be of some value as a catalogue for further research, but as seems inevitable in such productions the index is pathetic, and no sources are give. This makes it useless for the researcher, and boring to the casual reader. Hervey 's knowledge of the whole UFO field seems limited; a chapter headed 'The Most Fantastic Case on Record' turns out to be about a Fortean sky-fall which would only seem fantastic to anyone whose experience of the field is extremely limited. The names left out of the index read like a Who's Who of American ufology. 

The book jacket threatens a forthcoming book on British UFO scene; and about a year ago MUFOB received a circular letter from the author, asking for our complete back issues and files. Not wishing to be quoted at length without acknowledgement, we declined. This is hack work of the worst kind .
  • John Rimmer, from MUFOB 6, Spring 1977.

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