Product Description

This is a brilliant popular history which will appeal to the huge audience of Andrew Smith's "Moondust." It is written by a rising popular science star - a journalist who writes widely. It is a well-reviewed on hardback publication. Space historian Piers Bizony explodes NASA's 1960s mythology and unveils the man who gave up everything to win the space race. Neil Armstrong will forever be the first man on the Moon. But the person most responsible for putting him there is, incredibly, unknown. In 1961 James Webb, a South Carolina lawyer, took charge of America's bid for the Moon. Persuading a reluctant JFK and gaining control of 5 per cent of the US budget, Webb's NASA supervised half a million workers building new machines, launch pads and control centres. But in 1967, a spacecraft fire killed three astronauts. The press exposed numerous failures and delays, as well as Webb's business partners' profiteering. Webb shouldered the blame and his sacrifice enabled the Moon landing in 1969, but his name was wiped from history. Conducting extensive interviews and drawing on recently released original sources, Bizony tells the fascinating hidden story of the unconventional, charismatic man who made one giant leap for mankind.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #231555 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
"'Bizony draws a fast-cutting portrait... bound to appeal to moon buffs of all ages.' Guardian 'Bizony tells Webb's remarkable story in a pacy way, revealing the highs and ultimately the lows of a flawed genius whose name has been forgotten by time' Good Book Guide 'Journalist Bizony's excellent corrective to NASA's mythologized history takes an unflinching look at how James Webb, a North Carolina farm boy turned Washington insider, ran his end of the space race as NASA's administrator under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. A firebrand of a book' Publisher's Weekly (US)"

About the Author
Piers Bizony is a science journalist and space historian who writes for magazines such as Focus and Wired, as well as the Independent. His latest book is a narrative history of the birth of the atom, which ties in with a BBC Four television series.

Customer Reviews

Extremely interesting
I bought this book on a whim after a brief review in the BBC Focus magazine. I'm not much of a reader as I find my degree studies take my enthusiasm away from reading other material.

I have just finished it within 3 days and I was blown away. It is (in my opinion) very well written and gives an amazing insight into a fantastic age in space travel that is almost forgotten. It also helps the user understand the power stuggles in Washington when funding needed to secured.

Overall, this book does James Webb very proud - what an amazing man.

A revealing story
Very good book; revealing, convincing and well written. It has corrected my earlier belief that the moon-landing project was driven top-down by the Kennedy administration. This book reveals the complex politics involved and it was fortuitous that NASA had Webb to handle the complex political wheeling and dealing to get the project off the ground.

Politics and Space. Bliss.
I guess you have to be slightly weird to enjoy a book about the politics of space.
This book has enough leavening anecdote to make it digestible.
Very interesting book and filled in a lot of previously puzzling gaps for me. Especially the award of contracts. I could never understand why North American won Apollo when Mc Donnall had done such a superb job on Gemini.
Could the Apollo 1 tragedy have been averted? This book gives you the facts (and some truly horrific pictures) to understand and evaluate the train of events.
If you are a space fanatic and want to know how the various factions worked together to achieve a common goal this is a very good book.