The 1938 Orson Welles broadcast of ""The War of the Worlds"" was a landmark in the history of entertainment, sparking a public hysteria in America and a series of subsequent broadcasts around the world that elicited similar responses. This book examines the historic broadcast indepth. It covers all aspects of the phenomenon including fascination with Mars; H.G. Wells' novel; Orson Welles and the making of the broadcast; initial reactions and the resulting 'fog of war'; anxieties underlying the panic; and the aftermath. Chapters also look at later broadcasts in the United States, Latin America, Brazil and Portugal, and address the likelihood that a similar panic could happen again. The original script of the 1938 ""The War of the Worlds"" radio broadcast, written by Howard Koch, is included.

GENTLEMAN OF VIRGINIA. WARLORD OF MARS. Captain John Carter thought his days as a fighter were over. The South had lost the Civil War, and as a soldier now without a battle to fight or a cause to believe in, he journeyed west in search of a new life. Yet not even Carter could have expected that his new life would begin with his death in the Arizona desert, and his inexplicable arrival on the planet Mars. Or that he would find love in the eyes of the beauteous Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium. A prisoner of the giant, green-skinned warrior race called the Tharks, Dejah Thoris is meant to be used as a pawn in the ongoing war between the Tharks and her people, the red Martians-unless the gentleman from Virginia takes sword in hand to free her . . . and thus unite a divided world. Once more, John Carter has a cause to fight for-and this time, a love to win, as well. . . .