OKC Astronomy Club Meeting - Friday, November 8th, 2024 - 7 PM
Science Museum of Oklahoma Auditorium
Speaker: Richard J. Goodrich
(Ph.D., Ancient History, University of St Andrews, Scotland)
Title: Fear and Loathing in the Heavens: The 1910 Return of Halley’s Comet
In 1705, Edmond Halley liberated humanity from the belief that comets were portents of doom; two centuries later, in 1910, as Halley’s Comet returned to perihelion, newspapers and magazines, religious leaders, misguided theorists, and shameless grifters managed to rekindle that fear. When astronomers announced that the earth would pass through the comet’s tail, opportunists exploited human anxiety—often with fatal consequences.
Drawing on material from his book, Comet Madness: How the 1910 Return of Halley’s Comet (almost) Destroyed Civilization, historian Richard J. Goodrich offers an entertaining lecture about the limits of human rationality and the ways a media more interested in profits than the truth can terrorize society. This will be a fascinating and relevant look at the nexus of the scientific process and media hype and rumor in a phenomenon that was understood yet had historic roots of fear and uncertainty. Dr. Goodrich will introduce some prominent players whose fame has faded and describe some of the consequences of this misinformation to ordinary people.
Biography: Richard J. Goodrich taught late-Roman and early-church history in British and American universities. During his teaching career, Goodrich published six books in his field. His Reader’s Greek New Testament (Zondervan, 2003, 2008, 2015) is an academic bestseller, with more than 40,000 copies in print.
After twenty years in the classroom, Goodrich resigned his teaching position at Gonzaga University to focus on writing for a general audience. His debut work was Comet Madness: How the 1910 Visit of Halley’s Comet (Almost) Destroyed Civilization (Prometheus, 2023). Described as “a fascinating look at historical issues that we still struggle with today—media overhype, the tension between the scientific process and the need for headlines,” Comet Madness explored the hysteria produced by newspapers more interested in profits than the truth.
This was followed by the recently released L. A. Birdmen: West Coast Aviators and the First Airshow in America (Prometheus, 2024). “A deeply researched look into the irrepressible desire to fly and those who would stop at nothing to achieve it,” L. A. Birdmen focuses on the contributions of West Coast aviators to the early history of flight.
Richard is a Peripatetic Historian, wandering the world and writing about the history of places. He currently lives in Taipei, Taiwan. Learn more about his current books and upcoming projects at https://richardjgoodrich.com.
When asked about how he became interested in the topic of Halley’s Comet, he replied:
Serendipity! I spent my teaching career working on Late Roman/Early Church History. While a professor at Gonzaga University I also taught the History department’s Senior Thesis class. This was the capstone project for all of our graduating students. They had to write a 10,000 word (about 30 typed pages) thesis researching a topic of their selection. Most of them struggled with this assignment, so
one year I decided to write a thesis in parallel with their effort and offer them an example of how to execute this task. To make it a little more difficult I decided to write my “thesis” in a less-familiar area of history and started digging through early twentieth century newspapers.
I was immediately intrigued by the panic that resulted from the 1910 return of Halley’s Comet. So much so, that my 10,000 word paper grew into a 100,000 word book.
What surprised me the most, and what is the central theme of the book, was the willingness of newspapers to publish stories they knew were untrue, just to boost their prophets. Sadly, little has changed over the past 100 years.
Dr. Richard J. Goodrich is a historian, author, and photographer.
He publishes two newsletters:
What’s New in Old News?: A weekly bulletin of quirky stories from the past.
The Peripatetic Historian: A monthly newsletter that combines expatriate ruminations, history, photography, and updates on current writing projects.
Learn more about the author at: www.richardjgoodrich.com
Find Richard on Twitter: x.com
