“An exceptionally well-written and cleverly crafted exposition of what both speculative and mainstream science had to say in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries about the nature of Mars and the beings that might inhabit it. . . . The book is a must-read for any historian or scientist who cares about what, how, and why, and to what extent, cultural forces shape both scientific knowledge and public reaction to it.”

David H. DeVorkin, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution | American Scientist

“Illuminating. . . . [Geographies of Mars] paint[s] a vivid picture of Mars observation and the ways it has influenced and been influenced by contemporary culture.”

Andrew H. Knoll | Times Literary Supplement

"Explore Mars as scientists and the public saw it around the beginning of the 20th century, when canals on the Red Planet seemed a very real possibility."

Science News

"In the late nineteenth century, telescopic observations of Mars appeared to show artificially constructed channels across the planet's surface. These were christened "canals", and so began what some historians now call the 'canal craze,' with the scientific and popular press full of increasingly elaborate maps, and speculations about the height, intelligence and lifestyle of the aliens who lived on Mars and built these epic irrigation systems. (An excellent cultural history of this phenomenon is provided by Lane's book Geographies of Mars.)"

Steven Poole | The Guardian

"Lane”s book is surprising and often funny, as befits a recounting of this sort of wrongheadedness. It is, however, a serious account, well-researched, and well-illustrated, about how well-meaning people got Martian geography wrong. It explains how difficult it was for serious astronomers to correct the impression given by popularizers who had an attractive if erroneous picture of Mars (and of how science was done). As strange as the real Martian landscapes have turned out to be, to see them rightly we had to overcome the many sorts of geographic blinkers Lane has recounted."

The Dispatch

"Meticulously researched. . . . After the Viking Mars landers failed to detect life in the late 1970s, geneticist Norman Horowitz cautioned that the seductive idea that life could have started on Mars means we should take care in interpreting new findings and presenting them to the public. Lane's book reminds us that is still good advice."

Michael Carr | Nature

"Some historians attribute the belief that the Red Planet was inhabited by intelligent beings to mistranslation of the Italian word canali to 'canals' in English—the latter conveying artificiality. But Lane maintains the notion sprang mainly from Schiaparelli’s maps themselves. 'It’s a cartographic process that I think is really influential,' she says. 'Once you saw these linear features—that’s what convinced people that they were probably canals.'"

Diana Kwon | The Scientist

“We no longer dream about Martians, but the lesson of Geographies of Mars is still timely: science may be the search for truth, but the way we think and talk about science is a product of our hopes, fears, and dreams.”

Adam Kirsch | Barnes and Noble Review

"Lane offers a most unusual view of a well-known episode in astronomy. . . . There is a lesson here for artists, astronomers, social scientists and journalists. Lane's ‘geographer's gaze’ is particularly relevant to the last two categories."

Michael Mendillo | Imago Mundi

“Lane has done her homework, immersing herself in the primary and secondary literature; and yes, she has definitely made a major contribution to the discussion. . . . I urge historians of astronomy and of Victorian science to read Geographies of Mars and to consider its conclusions carefully.”

Marc Rothenberg | Isis

“A methodical examination of the social production of geographical knowledge in particular places and relational spaces. For a scholar interested in the geography of science and the science of geography, the book—drawing on critical cartography, science and technology studies, the geopolitics of empire, and the history of geography—will not fail to illuminate.”

Jason Dittmer | Cultural Geographies

“Lane, informed by her sensibilities as a historical geographer, brings us a fresh take. . . . In this fascinating book she eschews the argument that the story can be adequately explained as misguided observations by a few rogue astronomers and instead enlightens our understanding through the lens of geography."

Woody Sullivan | Journal for the History of Astronomy

"Lane makes plain that late nineteenth-century Mars observers suffered from a kind of 'geography envy' and used geographical techniques to meet the challenge of moving knowledge about Mars securely and efficiently between places and to different kinds of audiences."

Diarmid A. Finnegan | Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences

"Lane's Geographies of Mars brings to this fruitful mix of literary and historical scholarship a fresh geographical perspective, and represents the most impressive interdisciplinary study of Mars yet. The book breaks a great deal of new ground and is exemplary of how the ‘geographical turn’ can reinvigorate well-studied episodes within history of science. . . . Lane's geographical perspective impressively enhances our understanding of the Mars canal saga."

Joshua Nall | The British Journal for the History of Science

“Maria Lane’s arresting volume Geographies of Mars dramatically extends the reach of geography’s domain, both empirically—by sweeping the red planet into the orbit of geographical analysis—and conceptually—by disclosing the profound connections betweenthe ways terrestrial and Martian landscapes have been understood. In showing the imperial reach of early twentieth-century geographical sensibility beyond the earth itself and into the heavens, Lane has at once enlarged geography’s horizons and exposed just how intimate relations really are between the ‘near’ and the ‘far.’  In all, a wonderfully innovative piece of intellectual cartography.”

David N. Livingstone, Queen’s University Belfast

“Geographies of Mars is an imaginatively conceived, expertly researched, and bountifully illustrated study of popular and scientific understandings of Mars within the context of the Age of Exploration in the nineteenth century and turn of the twentieth. Like Symmes with his theory of the Hollow Earth, many held out the hope that Mars provided a hospitable environment for both social and physical engineering. Maria Lane takes readers on a dazzlingly comprehensive tour of cultures of Mars science, whose ideas were shaped by cartographic practices of the day, American and European geopolitics, and competition for scientific credibility. The new historical geography could not be in better hands; this is that rare academic book you’ll be inspired to read cover to cover.”

Karen M. Morin, Bucknell University

“Geographies of Mars is a terrific book of science fact, not science fiction. In engaging and lucid prose, Maria Lane reveals how the geography of the red planet was mapped, represented, and argued over. This is a story of mountain observatories, of fieldwork conducted at a distance, and of how Mars’s geographers sought social and scientific legitimacy. It is an insightful study in, and an important contribution to, the relationships between the science of geography and the geography of science.”

Charles W. J. Withers, University of Edinburgh

“Lane’s skillful exploration of how astronomy and geography intersected in the debates over the existence of life on Mars at the end of the nineteenth century, and beyond, makes for compelling reading. Readers will enjoy her persuasive discussions of the role of changing cartographical conventions, the construction of high-altitude sites, and the adoption of the heroic explorer narrative in providing legitimacy for pluralism. Also of note are her fresh interpretations of controversies over Martian landscapes and life forms in the context of environmental and imperial concerns. This book will appeal to historians of science, historians of geography, Victorianists, and historians of nineteenth-century American history.”

Bernard Lightman, York University