American Spaceflight

July 20th, 1969 - Neil Armstrong walks on the Moon.  Enjoy these other books about American Spaceflight.

America in Space: NASA's First Fifty Years by Steven Dick, Robert Jacobs, Constance Moore, & Ulrich Bertram - For more than a century before 1957, scientists and adventurers dreamed about the exploration of space and designed rockets and vehicles to make it possible, but the real space age began on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite. Until then, America's space exploration had been entrusted to the military, but immediately following Sputnik, the United States began to plan for the first civilian space agency. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was officially born on July 29, 1958.America in Space is a visual history of NASA, from its early days as a pioneer in supersonic flight, through the first manned space missions of the 1960s, to the shuttle and international space station missions that are still underway. It also covers NASA's exploration of the Solar System using unmanned probes and the imagery from satellite telescopes like Hubble.In fall 2007, NASA begins to celebrate its 50th Anniversary and Abrams is privileged to publish the official visual history of its many achievements in manned and unmanned space travel. Written and edited by a team of experienced NASA staffers and illustrated with many unpublished and rare images from the voluminous NASA archives scattered across the country, America in Space offers an unparalleled view of the human need to explore unknown places.

American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race by Douglas Brinkley - As the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, the award winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy's inspiring challenge, and America's race to the moon. On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Drawing on new primary source material and major interviews with many of the surviving figures who were key to America's success, Brinkley brings this fascinating history to life as never before. American Moonshot is a portrait of the brilliant men and women who made this giant leap possible, the technology that enabled us to propel men beyond earth's orbit to the moon and return them safely, and the geopolitical tensions that spurred Kennedy to commit himself fully to this audacious dream. Brinkley's ensemble cast of New Frontier characters include rocketeer Wernher von Braun, astronaut John Glenn and space booster Lyndon Johnson. A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation's history, American Moonshot is an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit.

Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon by Jeffrey Kluger - In August 1968, NASA made a bold decision: in just sixteen weeks, the United States would launch humankind's first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed sure to be broken. But when Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders were summoned to a secret meeting and told of the dangerous mission, they instantly signed on.
Written with all the color and verve of the best narrative non-fiction,Apollo 8 takes us from Mission Control to the astronaut's homes, from the test labs to the launch pad. The race to prepare an untested rocket for an unprecedented journey paves the way for the hair-raising trip to the moon. Then, on Christmas Eve, a nation that has suffered a horrendous year of assassinations and war is heartened by an inspiring message from the trio of astronauts in lunar orbit. And when the mission is over--after the first view of the far side of the moon, the first earth-rise,and the first re-entry through the earth's atmosphere following a flight to deep space--the impossible dream of walking on the moon suddenly seems within reach.
The full story of Apollo 8 has never been told, and only Jeffrey Kluger--Jim Lovell's co-author on their bestselling book about Apollo 13--can do it justice. Here is the tale of a mission that was both a calculated risk and a wild crapshoot, a stirring account of how three American heroes forever changed our view of the home planet.

Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight Before NASA by Amy Shira Teitel - NASA's history is a familiar story, culminating with the agency successfully landing men on the moon in 1969, but its prehistory is an important and rarely told tale. Breaking the Chains of Gravity looks at the evolving roots of America's space program--the scientific advances, the personalities, and the rivalries between the various arms of the United States military.
America's space agency drew together some of the best minds the non-Soviet world had to offer. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the U.S. Air Force, meanwhile, brought rocket technology into the world of manned flight.
The road to NASA and successful spaceflight was paved by fascinating stories and characters. At the end of World War II, Wernher von Braun escaped Nazi Germany and came to America where he began developing missiles for the United States Army. Ten years after he created the V-2 missile, his Jupiter rocket was the only one capable of launching a satellite into orbit. NACA test pilots like Neil Armstrong flew cutting-edge aircraft in the thin upper atmosphere while Air Force pilots rode to the fringes of space in balloons to see how humans handled radiation at high altitude. After the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, getting a man in space suddenly became a national imperative, leading President Dwight D. Eisenhower to pull various pieces together to create the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Chasing the Moon: The People, the Politics, and the Promise That Launched America into the Space Age by Robert Stone & Alan Andres - A charismatic young president issued the historic Moon landing challenge. This book, which greatly expands the companion PBS series, tell the stories of the visionaries--based on eyewitness accounts and newly discovered archival material--who helped America win the space race with the first lunar landing fifty years ago. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy proposed the nation spend twenty billion dollars to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. Based on eyewitness accounts and newly discovered archival material, Chasing the Moon reveals for the first time the unknown stories of the fascinating individuals whose imaginative work across several decades culminated in America's momentous achievement. More than a story of engineers and astronauts, the moon landing--now celebrating its fiftieth anniversary--grew out of the dreams of science fiction writers, filmmakers, military geniuses, and rule-breaking scientists. They include: " Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, whose writing inspired some of the key players in the Moon race. A scientific paper he wrote in his twenties led to the U.S. beating Russia in one area of space: communications satellites. " Wernher von Braun, the former Nazi military genius who oversaw Hitler's rocket weapons program. After working on ballistic missiles for the U.S. Army, he was recruited by NASA to manage the creation of the Saturn V moon rocket. " Astronaut Frank Borman, commander of the first mission to circumnavigate the Moon, whose powerful testimony before Congress in 1967 decisively saved the U.S. lunar program from being cancelled. " Poppy Northcutt, a young mathematician who was the first woman to work in Mission Control. Her media exposure as a unique presence in this all-male world allowed her the freedom to stand up for equal rights for women and minorities. " Edward Dwight, an African American astronaut candidate, recruited at the urging of the Kennedy White House to further the administration's civil rights agenda--but not everyone welcomed his inclusion. Setting these key players in the political, social, and cultural climate of the time, and including captivating photographs throughout, Chasing the Moon focuses on the science and the history, but most important, the extraordinary individuals behind what was undoubtedly the greatest human achievement of the twentieth century.

First on the Moon: The Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Experience by Rod Pyle - Acclaimed science author Rod Pyle (Missions to the Moon) returns with a beautiful and insightful book commemorating Apollo 11. First on the Moon offers an exciting behind-the-scenes look at America's journey to the Moon--from the space race to the landing on the Sea of Tranquility to splashdown on Earth and the aftermath. Pyle spent years combing NASA archives and private collections for memorabilia from the mission, and the book includes everything from accessible explanations of the enormous challenges facing NASA to reproductions of original 1969 documents. It also features a number of specially commissioned photocompositions created from NASA Apollo images released in 2015. Many were parts of photomontages taken by the astronauts, and these compositions have now been carefully restored to their originally intended montage formats . With compelling firsthand accounts and a gripping narrative, this gorgeously designed volume fully immerses readers in the Space Age. Includes a foreword by Buzz Aldrin, and exclusive interviews with the adult children of the Apollo 11 astronauts.

Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight by Jay Barbree - To date, everything written about Armstong's life and flights has been written from the outside looking in; Barbree is the only person whom Neil Armstrong trusted to share close personal details about his inspiring life story. Working from his years of notes, and with the full cooperation of the Armstrong family, Barbree has written the definitive biography of America's most famous astronaut and one of our greatest modern heroes. Much has already been written about Armstrong and the major players who helped him fly to the moon, but he wanted this book to emphasize his two passions--family and flight. Barbree and Armstrong discussed everything, from his two marriages and the death of his baby daughter, to his love of flying, the war years and of course, his time in space. The book, timed to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch and full of never-before-seen photos, includes many personal details that have never before been written, such as what Armstrong really felt when he took that first step on the moon, what life in NASA was like, his relationships with the other astronauts, and what he felt the future of space exploration should be.

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson - By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in its two most important objectives: to land a man on the Moon by President Kennedy's end-of-decade deadline, and to triumph over the Soviets in space. With its back against the wall, NASA made an almost unimaginable leap: It would scrap its usual methodical approach and risk everything on a sudden launch, sending the first men in history to the Moon--in just four months. And it would all happen at Christmas. In a year of historic violence and discord--the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago--the Apollo 8 mission would be the boldest, riskiest test of America's greatness under pressure. In this gripping insider account, Robert Kurson puts the focus on the three astronauts and their families: the commander, Frank Borman, a conflicted man on his final mission; idealistic Jim Lovell, who'd dreamed since boyhood of riding a rocket to the Moon; and Bill Anders, a young nuclear engineer and hotshot fighter pilot making his first space flight. Drawn from hundreds of hours of one-on-one interviews with the astronauts, their loved ones, NASA personnel, and myriad experts, and filled with vivid and unforgettable detail, Rocket Men is the definitive account of one of America's finest hours. In this real-life thriller, Kurson reveals the epic dangers involved, and the singular bravery it took, for mankind to leave Earth for the first time--and arrive at a new world.

Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson - At 9:32 A.M. on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 rocket launched in the presence of more than a million spectators who had gathered to witness a truly historic event. It carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins to the last frontier of human imagination: the moon.
Rocket Men is the thrilling story of the moon mission, and it restores the mystery and majesty to an event that may have become too familiar for most people to realize what a stunning achievement it represented in planning, technology, and execution.
Through interviews, twenty-three thousand pages of NASA oral histories, and declassified CIA documents on the space race, Craig Nelson re-creates a vivid and detailed account of the Apollo 11 mission. From the quotidian to the scientific to the magical, readers are taken right into the cockpit with Aldrin and Armstrong and behind the scenes at Mission Control.
Rocket Men is the story of a twentieth-century pilgrimage; a voyage into the unknown motivated by politics, faith, science, and wonder that changed the course of history.

Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11 by Jim Donovan - When the alarm went off forty thousand feet above the moon's surface, both astronauts looked down at me computer to see 1202 flashing on the readout. Neither of them knew what it meant, and time was running out... On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. One of the world's greatest technological achievements--and a triumph of American spirit and ingenuity--the Apollo 11 mission was a mammoth undertaking involving more than 410,000 men and women dedicated to winning the space race against the Soviets. Set amid the tensions of the Cold War and the upheavals of the sixties, and filled with first-person, behind-the-scenes details, [this] is a gripping account of the dangers, the challenges, and the sheer determination that defined not only Apollo 11, but also the Mercury and Gemini missions that came before it. From the shock of Sputnik and the heart-stopping final minutes of John Glenn's Mercury flight to the deadly whirligig of Gemini 8, the doomed Apollo 1 mission, and that perilous landing on the Sea of Tranquility--when the entire world held its breath while Armstrong and Aldrin battled computer alarms, low fuel, and other problems--James Donovan tells the whole story. Both sweeping and intimate, Shoot for the Moon is 'a powerfully written and irresistible celebration' (Booklist, starred review) of one of humankind's most extraordinary feats of exploration.

FDR

March 4th, 1933 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States of America.  Here are 10 books about him and his time.

Frank & Al: FDR, Al Smith, and the Unlikely Alliance That Created the Modern Democratic Party by Terry Golway - The inspiring story of an unlikely political partnership--between a to-the-manor-born Protestant and a Lower East Side Catholic--that transformed the Democratic Party and led to the New Deal In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Democratic Party was bitterly split between its urban machines--representing Catholics and Jews, ironworkers and seamstresses, from the tenements of the northeast and Midwest--and its populists and patricians, rooted in the soil and the Scriptures, enforcers of cultural, political, and religious norms. The chasm between the two factions seemed unbridgeable. But just before the Roaring Twenties, Al Smith, a proud son of the Tammany Hall political machine, and Franklin Roosevelt, a country squire, formed an unlikely alliance that transformed the Democratic Party. Smith and FDR dominated politics in the most-powerful state in the union for a quarter-century, and in 1932 they ran against each other for the Democratic presidential nomination, setting off one of the great feuds in American history. The relationship between Smith and Roosevelt is one of the most dramatic untold stories of early 20th Century American politics. It was Roosevelt who said once that everything he sought to do in the New Deal had been done in New York under Al Smith when he was governor in the 1920s. It was Smith who persuaded a reluctant Roosevelt to run for governor in 1928, setting the stage for FDR's dramatic comeback after contracting polio in 1921. They took their party, and American politics, out of the 19th Century and created a place in civic life for the New America of the 20th Century.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life by Robert Dallek - In an era of great national divisiveness, there could not be a more timely biography of one of our greatest presidents than one that focuses on his unparalleled strategic skills as a unifier and a consensus maker. Robert Dallek's Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life takes a fresh look at the many compelling questions of his remarkable presidency: How did a man who came from so privileged a background become one of the greatest champions of the country's needy? How did someone who never won recognition for his intellect foster such revolutionary innovations in our economic and social institutions? How did Roosevelt bring about such a profound change in America's foreign relations, leading it from isolationism to become an international superpower? By the time he became president, Roosevelt already commanded the respect and affection of millions of people through his services as assistant secretary of the Navy and governor of New York. Although many of his biographers agree that the onset of polio at the age of thirty-nine endowed him with a much greater sense of humanity, Dallek views that affliction as an insufficient explanation for his transformation into a masterful politician who would win an unprecedented four presidential terms and advance a remarkably progressive agenda. He attributes Roosevelt's success to two perceptive political insights. First, he made the presidency the central, most influential institution in the political system. Under his watch the country was able to recover from the Depression and entered World War II, but more controversially, he used that power in an unsuccessful attempt to pack the Supreme Court. Second, he understood that effectiveness in the American political system depended on building consensus and commanding stable, long-term popular support. In addressing the country's international and domestic challenges, Roosevelt recognized the critical importance of remaining attentive to the full range of public sentiment regarding policy decisions--perhaps his most important lesson in effective leadership, and one that remains vital today.

The Last 100 Days: FDR at War and at Peace by David Woolner - The first hundred days of FDR's presidency are justly famous, a period of political action without equal in American history. Yet as historian David B. Woolner reveals, the last hundred might very well surpass them in drama and consequence.
Drawing on new evidence, Woolner shows how FDR called on every ounce of his diminishing energy to pursue what mattered most to him: the establishment of the United Nations, the reinvigoration of the New Deal, and the possibility of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. We see a president shorn of the usual distractions of office, a man whose sense of personal responsibility for the American people bore heavily upon him. As Woolner argues, even in declining health FDR displayed remarkable political talent and foresight as he focused his energies on shaping the peace to come.

The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency by James Tobin - With a searching new analysis of primary sources, NBCC award winner James Tobin reveals how FDR's fight against polio transformed him from a callow aristocrat into the energetic, determined statesman who would rally the nation in the Great Depression and lead it through World War II. When polio paralyzed Franklin Roosevelt at thirty-nine, people wept to think that the young man of golden promise must live out his days as a helpless invalid. He never again walked on his own. But in just over a decade, he had regained his strength and seized the presidency. This was the most remarkable comeback in the history of American politics. And, as author James Tobin shows, it was the pivot of Roosevelt's life--the triumphant struggle that tempered and revealed his true character. With enormous ambition, canny resourcefulness, and sheer grit, FDR willed himself back into contention and turned personal disaster to his political advantage. Tobin's dramatic account of Roosevelt's ordeal and victory offers central insights into the forging of one of our greatest presidents.

The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 by Nigel Hamilton - Based on years of archival research and interviews with the last surviving aides and Roosevelt family members, Nigel Hamilton offers a definitive account of FDR's masterful--and underappreciated--command of the Allied war effort. Hamilton takes readers inside FDR's White House Oval Study--his personal command center--and into the meetings where he battled with Churchill about strategy and tactics and overrode the near mutinies of his own generals and secretary of war. Time and again, FDR was proven right and his allies and generals were wrong. When the generals wanted to attack the Nazi-fortified coast of France, FDR knew the Allied forces weren't ready. When Churchill insisted his Far East colonies were loyal and would resist the Japanese, Roosevelt knew it was a fantasy. As Hamilton's account reaches its climax with the Torch landings in North Africa in late 1942, the tide of war turns in the Allies' favor and FDR's genius for psychology and military affairs is clear. This intimate, sweeping look at a great president in history's greatest conflict is must reading.

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin - Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History, No Ordinary Time is a monumental work, a brilliantly conceived chronicle of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary periods in the history of the United States.
With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin masterfully weaves together a striking number of story lines--Eleanor and Franklin's marriage and remarkable partnership, Eleanor's life as First Lady, and FDR's White House and its impact on America as well as on a world at war. Goodwin effectively melds these details and stories into an unforgettable and intimate portrait of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and of the time during which a new, modern America was born.

Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America Into the World by Michael Fullilove - Fullilove demonstrates that America's global primacy in the second half of the twentieth century was enabled by the earlier work of Roosevelt and his five extraordinary representatives from 1939-1941. Together these men and their president took the United States into the war and, by defeating domestic isolationists and foreign enemies, into the world.

Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America by Douglas Brinkley - Douglas Brinkley's Wilderness Warrior celebrated Theodore Roosevelt's spirit of outdoor exploration and bold vision. Now Brinkley turns his attention to another indefatigable environmental leader--Theodore's distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt--chronicling his essential yet undersung legacy as the founder of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the premier protector of America's public lands. FDR built state park systems and scenic roadways from scratch. Through his leadership, pristine landscapes such as the Great Smokies, the Everglades, Joshua Tree, the Olympics, Big Bend, and the Channel Islands were forever saved. Brinkley traces FDR's love for the natural world back to his youth spent exploring the Hudson River Valley and birdwatching. Forestry would soon become a consuming passion. As America's president from 1933 to 1945, Roosevelt, a consummate political strategist, established hundreds of federal migratory bird refuges and spearheaded the modern movement to protect endangered species. He deftly positioned his conservation goals as economic policy to combat the severe unemployment of the Great Depression. During its seven-year existence, the CCC put nearly three million young men to work on conservation projects--including planting trees, national park preservation, pollution control, and grasslands restoration. Rightful Heritage is an epic chronicle that is both an irresistible portrait of FDR's unrivaled passion and drive and an indispensable analysis that skillfully illuminates the tension between business and nature--exploiting our natural resources and conserving them. Within the narrative are capsule biographies of such environmental warriors as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Ickes, and Aldo Leopold.

Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah Feldman - A tiny, ebullient Jew who started as America's leading liberal and ended as its most famous judicial conservative. A Klansman who became an absolutist advocate of free speech and civil rights. A backcountry lawyer who started off trying cases about cows and went on to conduct the most important international trial ever. A self-invented, tall-tale Westerner who narrowly missed the presidency but expanded individual freedom beyond what anyone before had dreamed.
Four more different men could hardly be imagined. Yet they had certain things in common. Each was a self-made man who came from humble beginnings on the edge of poverty. Each had driving ambition and a will to succeed. Each was, in his own way, a genius.
They began as close allies and friends of FDR, but the quest to shape a new Constitution led them to competition and sometimes outright warfare. SCORPIONS tells the story of these four great justices: their relationship with Roosevelt, with each other, and with the turbulent world of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. It also serves as a history of the modern Constitution itself.

Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, Truman, and the Birth of the Modern World by Michael Dobbs - When Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met in Yalta in February 1945, Hitler's armies were on the run and victory was imminent.  The Big Three wanted to draft a blueprint for a lasting peace--but instead set the stage for a forty-four-year division of Europe into Soviet and western spheres of influence. After fighting side by side for nearly four years, their political alliance was rapidly fracturing. By the time the leaders met again in Potsdam in July 1945, Russians and Americans were squabbling over the future of Germany and Churchill was warning about an "iron curtain" being drawn down over the Continent.
These six months witnessed some of the most dramatic moments of the twentieth century: the cataclysmic battle for Berlin, the death of Franklin Roosevelt, the discovery of the Nazi concentration camps, Churchill's electoral defeat, and the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan. While their armies linked up in the heart of Europe, the political leaders maneuvered for leverage: Stalin using his nation's wartime sacrifices to claim spoils, Churchill doing his best to halt Britain's waning influence, FDR trying to charm Stalin, Truman determined to stand up to an increasingly assertive Soviet superpower.