I've been having a great time with a couple of science books over the last few days. This is uncharacteristic for me as I'm usually more interested in literature, history and the social sciences.
The first, Worlds in Collision by Immanuel Velikovsky, is a fascinating examination of the cataclysmic events which affected planet Earth during human pre-history and also within the historical period BCE. The breadth and depth of Dr Velikovsky's examination and explanation of these events is enthralling, unbelievable. No really, completely unbelievable! This guy was crazier than a pet squirrel! How his inane ramblings would for more than two decades attract a coterie of true believers beggars the imagination. To summarize, according to the good Dr V there is no gravity and celestial mechanics functions on the basis of electromagnetism, Earth was at one time a satellite of Saturn (only latterly of the Sun), Venus is a mass of ejecta from the surface of Jupiter that became a comet which at least twice in Biblical times barely missed the Earth before settling into its present orbit, Mars did largely the same thing and, with help from Mercury and Jupiter, were responsible for the cataclysmic events recorded in the Old Testament and in the mythologies of many cultures around the Earth. This thesis is not presented as fiction but as indisputable historical fact. Dr V believed it all fervently. He wasn't a hoax artist, he was a nutbar. Why was I reading such a book? That is a fair question.
The other book that I read, The Pseudoscience Wars by Michael D. Gordin, is all about scientists who wear nothing but brushed pigskin. I'm kidding of course and there is no goatskin involved either. The Pseudoscience Wars is an examination of the controversies surrounding the initial publication of Worlds in Collision. I had started reading Gordin's book first and became so intrigued with the absolutely nonsensical theories of Dr V that I had to set Gordin aside and venture into Worlds in Collision.
Oddly, I can recommend both books, the first as an example of personal mania portrayed as science, the second as an explanation of the so-called "Velikovsky Affair," something which was apparently quite the rage before any of us were born.