"The War of the Worlds" details 12 days in which invaders from Mars attack the planet Earth, captured popular imagination with its fast-paced narrative and images of Martians and interplanetary travel. The humans in "The War of the Worlds" initially treat the invasion with complacency but soon are provoked into a defensive state of war.

H. G. Wells's science fiction masterpiece "The War of the Worlds" was originally published in Pierson's magazine in 1897 and was issued as a novel the following year. A century later, it has never been out of print. The story has become an integral part of our culture, frequently retold in graphic novels and films. In 1938, it became part of one of the greatest and most horrifying media events of all times. "The Mercury Theatre on the Air", headed by twenty-three-year-old Orson Welles, broadcast over the radio an adaptation of the book that was so realistic that it caused widespread public panic, mob violence, and looting. Until the night of that broadcast, few people realised the power of broadcast media to make whole populations feel powerless when faced with breaking events.