Last Frontier Imagining Other Worlds, from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction

This book, originally published in Germany in 1983, is a brilliant and detailed thematic study of one of the most haunting problems mankind has ever considered: Are we alone in the universe? The book traces the development of the idea that Earth is not the only planet inhabited by intelligent beings, but that there might be a plurality or even an infinity of ³worlds² with human or humanoid life. Focusing on the period from the 17th to the 20th centuries and taking into account theological, philosophical, scientific, popular, and literary writings from American, British, French, and German sources, Karl S. Guthke demonstrates the continuing importance of this question to the process of human self-definition. An engaging, lucid adventure in the history of ideas.Guthke, Karl S. is the author of 'Last Frontier Imagining Other Worlds, from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction' with ISBN 9780756761479 and ISBN 0756761476.