Product Description

This highly acclaimed study approaches the space race as a problem in comparative public policy. Drawing on published literature, archival sources in both the United States and Europe, interviews with many of the key participants, and important declassified material, such as the National Security Council's first policy paper on space, McDougall examines U.S., European, and Soviet space programs and their politics. Opening with a short account of Nikolai Kibalchich, a late nineteenth-century Russian rocketry theoretician, McDougall argues that the Soviet Union made its way into space first because it was the world's first "technocracy" -- which he defines as "the institutionalization of technological change for state purpose." He also explores the growth of a political economy of technology in both the Soviet Union and the United States.

"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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199602 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 584 pages

Review

"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

"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

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

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

"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

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.

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece!!!
This is the best political history written about the space program to date. McDougall's book is masterfully researched and written. This is what scholarship is all about! As a doctoral student in space policy, I have found this book to be an incredible reference guide in my studies.

McDougall's genius lies in his ability to decifer the true reasons (political, social, and economic) behind the space race. The amazing thing is that he did so before most of the classified documents regarding the opening years of the American space program were released. Almost all of his assumptions have been proven true as those documents have become available to the public.

I would highly recommend this book to any true student of the history of the space program.

Intellectual Stimulation, not MTV
Unlike one of the reveiwers below, I did not approach this book looking for an outer space shoot-em-up action movie. McDougall provides clever and original insights into the the politics of space. Coupled with his lucid writing style, this book elucidates many of American and Soviet motivations for space programs. This book is thoroughly original, insightful, and poses some excellect questions for future research. This book recounts the political history of the space race, and McDougall need not apologoze for not including Obi-Wan Kinobi.

Good history but a bit dry
Nearly too thorough in its analysis of the space programs of the U.S. and Soviet Union. As it was intended as a work of history, I suppose it accomplished its goal. However, there are other books on the subject that are more concise in their dealing with this subject. In their relative brevity they may lose some of the depth this book offers, but not nearly enough so to render them non-valid. Perhaps this book is original, but it is not unique in its analysis. Oh, and Kenobi is spelled with an E, not an I. Insults work better when not flawed.