The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained

America's favorite cultural historian and author of Ghostland takes a "thought-provoking and delicoiusly unsettling" (Publisher's Weekly) tour of the country's most persistent "unexplained" phenomena

In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational--in fringe--is on the rise: from Atlantis to aliens, from Flat Earth to the Loch Ness monster, the list goes on. It seems the more our maps of the known world get filled in, the more we crave mysterious locations full of strange creatures.

Enter Colin Dickey, Cultural Historian and Tour Guide of the Weird. With the same curiosity and insight that made Ghostland a hit with readers and critics, Colin looks at what all fringe beliefs have in common, explaining that today's Illuminati is yesterday's Flat Earth: the attempt to find meaning in a world stripped of wonder. Dickey visits the wacky sites of America's wildest fringe beliefs--from the famed Mount Shasta where the ancient race (or extra-terrestrials, or possibly both, depending on who you ask) called Lemurians are said to roam, to the museum containing the last remaining "evidence" of the great Kentucky Meat Shower--investigating how these theories come about, why they take hold, and why as Americans we keep inventing and re-inventing them decade after decade. The Unidentified is Colin Dickey at his best: curious, wry, brilliant in his analysis, yet eminently readable.

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Published Jul 20, 2021

320 pages

Average rating: 6.69

29 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

phurlz
Oct 23, 2024
7/10 stars
Not as good as Ghostland, but also very interesting!!
TReyes
Aug 23, 2024
4/10 stars
I love all things paranormal. I grew up reading everything I could find about Nessie, Bigfoot, etc. I was looking forward to this book, but the author’s bias is so prevalent that it soured the book for me. I don’t understand why he wrote this if he doesn’t believe or even seem to care about the subject. Could have been so much better, but the author’s “this is so stupid” attitude just ruins this.
mjex19
Jul 18, 2023
8/10 stars
There’s a bunch of crazy mfers out there
oh_let3
May 16, 2023
8/10 stars
dickey is a good researcher and creates fun non-fiction narratives

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