Waging the War of the Worlds (Book Review)

Perhaps no other old-time radio program is more fascinating than the Mercury Theater's production of H.G. Wells' novel, War of the Worlds. Known as the 1938 panic broadcast, the subject fascinates even youngsters to this day. While it is universally agreed among historians that the broadcast sparked public hysteria, it has also been proven that the newspapers were quick to run with any story of people running through the streets with wet towels over their faces to protect themselves from the poison gas that was supposedly in the air. Truth be told, the mass hysteria was so minor that the newspaper journalists found more stories to set to print than there were. The "fog of war" anxieties that were underlying of the times helped boost fears that war overseas would soon approach our homeland.

Numerous magazine articles and books have been written on the subject but none can be truly as extensive or accurate than John Gosling's book titled Waging the War of the Worlds: A History of the 1938 Radio Broadcast and Resulting Panic. From the facts behind the week's rehearsal and re-writes, smoke and mirrors, the obvious bloopers that can be heard during the broadcast that should have tipped off the listeners, to a reprint of the radio script... it is all here. Gosling even covers similar incidents of panic resulting from similar radio broadcasts in Latin America, Brazil, Portugal and other countries.

The book also includes scans and reprints of historic documents and archival photographs from various libraries. 

If you wanted to read up on the history of the 1938 War of the Worlds panic broadcast, this is the one book you want to grab this Halloween.