Matthew Shindell curates the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s collection of spacecraft, instruments, and other artifacts related to the exploration and study of our Earth and solar system. He cohosts the museum’s AirSpace podcast. A historian of science, he is also the author of The Life and Science of Harold C. Urey, coauthor of Spaceships and Discerning Experts, editor of Lunar, and coeditor of Smithsonian American Women.

“Shindell describes his book as ‘the history of human ideas about Mars’, and he thoughtfully follows its winding path through religion, literature and pop culture. . . . [He] persuasively argues that Mars is most instructive when it sheds light on how we see ourselves.”

• List of IllustrationsPrologue: Mars in the Time of COVID-19Introduction: Keeping Up with Mars1   Mars and the Cosmic State2   Mars in the Medieval Imagination3   Restructuring the World4   The Making of Modern Mars5   Cold War Red Planet6   Mars and the New MillenniumConclusion: The Human Future of Mars?AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

Matthew Shindell curates the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s collection of spacecraft, instruments, and other artifacts related to the exploration and study of our Earth and solar system. He cohosts the museum’s AirSpace podcast. A historian of science, he is also the author of The Life and Science of Harold C. Urey, coauthor of Spaceships and Discerning Experts, editor of Lunar, and coeditor of Smithsonian American Women.

“Shindell describes his book as ‘the history of human ideas about Mars’, and he thoughtfully follows its winding path through religion, literature and pop culture. . . . [He] persuasively argues that Mars is most instructive when it sheds light on how we see ourselves.”

• List of IllustrationsPrologue: Mars in the Time of COVID-19Introduction: Keeping Up with Mars1   Mars and the Cosmic State2   Mars in the Medieval Imagination3   Restructuring the World4   The Making of Modern Mars5   Cold War Red Planet6   Mars and the New MillenniumConclusion: The Human Future of Mars?AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex