the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age / Edition 1

by Walter A. McDougall

Overview

Drawing on published literature, archival sources in both the United States and Europe, interviews with key participants, and important declassified material, McDougall presents the stories of the U.S., European, and Soviet space programs as fascinating examples of comparative public policy. McDougall argues that the Soviet Union made its way into space first because it employed the world's first "technocracy." Discussing the political leadership of Khrushchev, Eiscuhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, he makes clear why the United States quickly developed its own version of state-driven technology, how it succeeded, and what it cost - materially and morally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801857485
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/24/1997
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	584
Sales rank:	727,334
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.22(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Walter A. McDougall is Alloy-Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, and editor of Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs. He is also author of France's Rhineland Diplomacy, 1914-1942: The Last Bid for a Balance of Power in Europe.

Table of Contents

Illustrations
Abbreviations used in Text
Preface to the Johns Hopkins Edition
Preface
Introduction
Part I. The Genesis of Sputnik
1. The HUman Seed and Social Soil: Rocketry and Revolution
2. Political Rains and First Fruit: The Cold War and Sputnik
Conclusion
Part II. Modern Arms and Free Men: America Before Sputnik
3. Bashful Behemoth: Technology, the State, and the Birth of Deterrence
4. While Waiting for Technology: The ICBM and the First American Space Program
5. The Satellite Decision
Conclusion
Part III. Vanguard and Rearguard: Eisenhower and the Setting of American Space Policy
6. "A New Era of History" and a Media Riot
7. The Birth of NASA
8. A Space Strategy for the United States
9. Sparrow in the Falcon's Nest
10. The Shape of Things to Come
Conclusion
Part IV: Parabolic Ballad: Khrushchev and the Setting of Soviet Space Policy
11. Party Line
12. The Missle Bluff
13. Hammers or Sickles in Space?
14. Space Age Communism: The Khrushchevian Synthesis
Conclusion
Part V: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Technocratic Temptation
15. Destination Moon
16. Hooded Falcons: Space Technology and Assured Destruction
17. Benign Hypocrisy: American Space Diplomacy
18. Big Operator: James Webb's Space Age America
19. Second Thoughts
Conclusion
Part VI. The Heavens and the Earth: The First Twenty-five Years
20. Voyages to Tsiolkovskia
21. The Quest for a G.O.D.
22. A Fire in the Sun
Appendix
Abbreviations used in Notes
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

"The definitive, surprising and highly readable history of the U.S. space program. Forget visionary rhetoric about humans' need to explore the next frontier: McDougal demonstrates how NASA's moon missions grew directly from Hitler's V-2 rocket project at Pennemunde and were all about the classic military necessity of controlling the high ground—in this case the really high ground... [One of] the five best books I have read about the U.S. space program."

Mark Bowden

"The definitive, surprising and highly readable history of the U.S. space program. Forget visionary rhetoric about humans' need to explore the next frontier: McDougal demonstrates how NASA's moon missions grew directly from Hitler's V-2 rocket project at Pennemunde and were all about the classic military necessity of controlling the high ground—in this case the really high ground... [One of] the five best books I have read about the U.S. space program."

From the Publisher

The definitive, surprising and highly readable history of the U.S. space program. Forget visionary rhetoric about humans' need to explore the next frontier: McDougal demonstrates how NASA's moon missions grew directly from Hitler's V-2 rocket project at Pennemunde and were all about the classic military necessity of controlling the high ground—in this case the really high ground . . . [One of] the five best books I have read about the U.S. space program.
—Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down

Editorial Reviews

[An] immensely readable and elegant book.
--Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

[A] boldly conceived, elegantly written, and unfailingly provocative history of the new age of space.
--Science

A lucid and comprehensive political history of the American, European, and Russian space programs.
--New Scientist

Exhaustively researched, brilliantly conceived, and beautifully written.
--New York Times Book Review

Once every decade or so, a book comes along that stands by itself as a remarkable contribution to the literature of a field. Such a work is Walter A. McDougall's . . . the Heavens and the Earth.
--Technology and Culture

This highly acclaimed study approaches the space race as a problem in comparative public policy.
--The Astronomical Society of the Pacific

From the Publisher

This highly acclaimed study approaches the space race as a problem in comparative public policy.

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific

A lucid and comprehensive political history of the American, European, and Russian space programs.

New Scientist

Once every decade or so, a book comes along that stands by itself as a remarkable contribution to the literature of a field. Such a work is Walter A. McDougall's . . . the Heavens and the Earth.

Technology and Culture

[A] boldly conceived, elegantly written, and unfailingly provocative history of the new age of space.

Science

[An] immensely readable and elegant book.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Exhaustively researched, brilliantly conceived, and beautifully written.

New York Times Book Review

"A lucid and comprehensive political history of the American, European, and Russian space programs."

New Scientist

"[A] boldly conceived, elegantly written, and unfailingly provocative history of the new age of space."

Science

The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian examines the competing U.S. and Soviet space programs. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly