Dreamland - by Phil Patton (Paperback)

About the Book

An exploration of America's most secret place, "Dreamland" offers a novelistic tour de force destined to make readers rethink their convictions about American know-how--and alien inventiveness. of photos.

Book Synopsis

A journey into the most secret place in America
A story of secrecy, suspicion, and conspiracy
A history of a place that does not legally exist

Dreamland zooms in on Area 51--the nearly four million acres of Nevada airspace that has been a base for experimental military aircraft, the fount of UFO rumors, and the alleged site of alien insurrection.
How this real-life legend came to exist is Phil Patton's tale. He explores the mystery and fantasy surrounding the place, peeks over the edge of paranoia, and tracks strange objects in the air above this country of the mind. He visits spies and counterspies, test pilots and secret agents, and tunnels into the subcultures of true believers and conspiracy buffs.
Reviewers have applauded Dreamland as "brilliant," "fascinating," "weird, wonderful, sometimes spooky," "curiously epic, frequently humorous, and always entertaining." Dreamland is a novelistic tour de force that makes us all rethink our convictions about American know-how--and alien inventiveness.

Review Quotes

"A mind-opening tale of trespass and revelation, of road adventures, technothriller hardware, saucer folks and aerospace outlaws--as well as a daring account of the haunting of our history through the Cold War and beyond by what we have seen, and often wish we had not seen, in the hazardous dreamscape of the American sky."--Thomas Pynchon

"A hitchhiker's guide to a place that doesn't appear on any maps."
--The Washington Post

About the Author

Phil Patton is a contributing editor of Esquire, Wired, and ID, and writes the "Public Eye" column for The New York Times. His previous books include Made in USA: The Secret Histories of the Things That Made America, Open Road: A Celebration of the American Highway, and Voyager (with Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager). He has been a commentator on the CBS news show "Up to the Minute" and several public television series. Phil Patton can be reached at philpatton@msn.com.