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In mid nineteenth century England, public lectures provided the opportunity for people of modest means to learn about the world around beyond their communities and the world around themselves. One of the many traveling speakers, a man calling himself "Parallax" toured the lecture halls and auditoriums of England, drew crowds by expounding upon his personal experiments, which, he claimed, showed the Earth was not a globe, but a flattened disk. Parallax, a skilled debater, would begin to revive the age old idea of the flat earth. Parallax, a man actually named Samuel Birley Rowbotham, and those he inspired, would go on to write a number of books discussing the idea of the flat earth. These authors, their ideological successors and those who have written about them are represented in the books, book chapters, and book excerpts of The Flat Earth and its Advocates: A List of References.
This list of books, chapters and excerpts on the flat earth theory has been split, with Library of Congress materials being given their own list on this page, followed by the list of materials from other institutions which Freitag included in her original guide. Journal and magazine articles have been given a separate page. The resulting resource lists have been organized by author's surname where known, and then by title.
The Flat Earth and its Advocates: A List of References was originally published in May of 1998. Works which postdate 1998 are drawn from the new material available in the Library's collections on the subject.
The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content, including full digitized books, are included when available. Specific chapters focusing on this topic are noted in the citations.
Misconceptions about the Middle Ages by 
The great American misfit: 26 bizarre personal histories by One hundred proofs that the earth is not a globe by His pronouncement, a layman's version, a layman's message by A reparation: universal gravitation, a universal fake by Odd and Eccentric People by Fads and fallacies in the name of science by 
Flat Earth: the history of an infamous idea by Is the Bible from heaven? Is the earth a globe? In two parts...also an accurate chronology of all past time, containing a classification of all eclipses from creation by Earth not a globe: scientifically, geometrically, philosophically demonstrated. Over 75 arguments and 30 diagrams by The new manual of biblical cosmography; or, Outline of the general system of the universe by The infidel globe or Scientific witchcraft, the emblem of paganism and the refuge of the atheist.The book of light, a brief description of the earth, with a map showing its shape. The earth being flat instead of round, the sun is not stationary but moves. by Those Eccentric Yankees. by Eccentric lives and peculiar notions by Can you speak Venusian? A guide to the independent thinkers by Unpopular truth against popular errors in references to the shape of the earth by Proofs (so-called) of the world's rotundity, examined in the light of facts and common sense by An encyclopedia of claims, frauds and hoaxes of the occult and supernatural by Zetetic astronomy. A description of several experiments which prove that the surface of the sea is a perfect plane, and that the earth is not a globe. Being the substance of a paper read before the Royal Astronomical Society on the evening of Dec. 8, 1848 by Worlds of their own: a brief history of misguided ideas: creationism, flat-earthism, energy scams, and the Velikovsky affair by American Eccentrics by My life, a record of events and opinions by The square pegs; some Americans who dared to be different. by A history of the warfare of science with theology in Christendom by The shape of the earth; some proofs for the spherical shape of the earth given in astronomical and geographical text-books examined, and shown to be unsound. by Zetetic cosmogony; or, Conclusive evidence that the world is not a rotating-revolving-globe, but a stationary plane circle by Ruth Freitag's original guide included material that does not appear in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. For these items, we have provided links to the OCLC Worldcat External database, a free tool which allows users to search a combined catalog of materials from many of the world's prominent libraries. The original guide provided British Library shelfmarks in the locations where they appear. Call numbers from other institutions have been added and are provided as examples only. Items in question may or may not have copies held at multiple institutions. Consult OCLC Worldcat records for additional holdings information. The list is organized by author's surname where known, and then by title.
The following materials include links to fuller bibliographic information in OCLC Worldcat. External Links to digital content are included when available.
The terrestrial plane; or, The true figure of the earth. by Does the earth rotate? by Chart and compass, sextant and sundial, latitudes and longitudes, plumbline and pendulum, globe or plane? A letter of remonstrance, respectfully addressed to the officers of the Naval and Mercantile Marine of England and America. by The Earth a plane. by Zetetic astronomy. Earth not a globe. An experimental inquiry into the true figure of the earth, proving it a plane... by Terra firma: the earth not a planet, proved from scripture, reason, and fact. by Is the Earth a whirling globe? by 
