The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill

August 14, 2023
In this unconventional chronicle of Cold War America, historian and religious scholar Bowman (The Mormon People) examines evolving societal relations between science, religion, and race through the lens of one interracial couple’s encounter with the supernatural. On the night of Sept. 19, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill reported sighting a mysterious light in the sky over New Hampshire, and quickly came to believe they had witnessed a flying saucer. Bowman’s interest lies not in speculating on the validity of the Hills’ narrative but in exploring how the social upheavals of the 1960s and ’70s shaped the couple’s interpretations of what they saw. Noting how the story “grew in the telling,” Bowman charts its evolution into an elaborate abduction narrative, as Betty and Barney’s faith in long-held liberal, Unitarian values became compromised by the skepticism with which their accounts were received by the U.S. Air Force and medical professionals. By the 1970s, a disillusioned and grieving Betty embraced new age spiritualism and dabbled in conspiracy theories. Enmeshed within the narrative is perceptive commentary on such issues as the civil rights struggle, suspicions surrounding technology and scientific expertise, and the uses and abuses of psychoanalysis. It adds up to a potent deconstruction of mid-20th-century American politics and culture.