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Summary
Summary
2020 Audie Awards® WINNER - History/Biography
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.
"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win."--President John F. Kennedy
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.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Brinkley (The Great Deluge) frames the life and career of President John F. Kennedy through the Cold War-tinged lens of the Space Race in this inspiring history. The book opens with the parallels between the WWII experiences of PT boat commander Kennedy and Nazi rocketeer Wernher von Braun, whose lives intersected after the war with the launch of Kennedy's political career and von Braun's newfound role as the United States' top rocket scientist. In Brinkley's telling, Kennedy's impassioned response to Soviet advances in space technology, which contrasted sharply the Eisenhower administration's, led him to victory in the 1960 presidential election. His declaration before Congress that Americans would put men on the moon by the end of the decade and his public embrace of John Glenn and the other Mercury Seven astronauts were, Brinkley argues, political gestures also motivated by personal passion. The author argues that it was Kennedy's appeal to a sense of American greatness, evident in his famous "We choose to go to the moon" speech at Rice University in September 1962, that made the U.S.'s space achievements possible. By highlighting the visionary, charismatic political leader's role, Brinkley offers a new perspective on one of the greatest accomplishments in human history. Photos. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A look back at the days when American presidents and politicians believed in and promoted sciencedays when there was a world to win, along with the heavens.Prolific historian Brinkley (Chair, History/Rice Univ.; Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America, 2016, etc.) avers that his latest is a contribution to "U.S. presidential history (not space studies)." However, in his customarily thorough way, it's clear that he's mastered a great deal of the facts and lore surrounding the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo projects that landed American astronauts on the moon 50 years ago. As his account unfolds, two themes emerge. One is that fiscal conservatives, exemplified by President Dwight Eisenhower, were reluctant to fuel the emerging military-industrial complex, affording John F. Kennedy a campaign issue that revolved around the "missile gap" between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. As Brinkley writes, "having been raised in a family obsessed with winning at every level, [Kennedy] reduced the complexities of Cold War statesmanship to a simple contest." The second theme is that the space race was very much an extension of the wider Cold War. In both matters, notes the author, NASA became the beneficiary of both federal largess and the advantages of "unfettered capitalism," tapping into a fast-growing network of military contractors and spinning off basic research into an array of technological products. Even during the Bay of Pigs crisis, Kennedy kept his eye on the lunar prize, tasking his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, with determining whether the American parties involved in the space race were "making maximum effort." With JFK's assassination, the moon program seemed in danger of losing impetus and funding, but thanks to a vigorous NASA administrator and political allies in Congress and the executive branch, the Kennedy-inspired effort was realized. In fact, writes the author, it became a "marvelous alternative to all-out war with the USSR or future proxy wars such as Korea."A highly engaging history not just for space-race enthusiasts, but also students of Cold War politics. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, presidential historian Brinkley tells the backstory of that monumental achievement, placing John F. Kennedy in a starring role. During his childhood and adolescence, Kennedy had a passionate interest in science and practical know-how, absorbing the tales of Jules Verne and mastering sailing off the coast of his family's Massachusetts estate. Given his zeal and temperament, his now epochal 1961 pronouncement about putting a man on the moon within the decade was an almost inevitable outgrowth of his temperament. Along with tracking the influences which inspired Kennedy's pledge, Brinkley profiles other major players in the ensuing space race, from rocket buff Robert Goddard to ex-Nazi engineer Wernher von Braun, and shines a spotlight on how politicized NASA and other related organizations became. One especially eye-opening revelation underscores how Kennedy and his cronies funneled money to space contractors in the Southern states, where the president's support was more tenuous. With his usual masterful narrative skill, Brinkley captures the sweep and excitement of an inspiring era in American history.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Brinkley is a commanding public historian and intellectual, and his major contribution to the celebration of the first lunar landing will engender many requests.--Carl Hays Copyright 2019 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
AMERICAN MOONSHOT: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race, by Douglas Brinkley. (Harper/ HarperCollins, $35.) In his study of the politics behind Apollo ll's launch, Brinkley fits the space program into a wider American social context. He also asks whether the program was worth the tens of billions it cost, and argues that for its technological advances alone, it was. ORIGINAL PRIN, by Randy Boyagoda. (John Metcalf/Biblioasis, paper, $14.95.) This highly original novel traces an unexceptional professor's path to becoming a suicide bomber. The comedy of literary and cultural references involves unfunny matters like cancer, a crisis of faith and Islamic terrorism, as well as easier comic subjects like juice-box fatherhood and academia. BIG SKY, by Kate Atkinson. (Little, Brown, $28.) After a nine-year absence, Atkinson's laconic private eye, Jackson Brodie, returns to deliver his idiosyncratic brand of justice to crime victims in a case involving human trafficking. THE PLAZA: The Secret Life of America's Most Famous Hotel, by Julie Satow. (Twelve, $29.) Satow's gossip-stuffed tale traces the history of one of New York's most iconic landmarks, the imposing white chateau at the corner of 59th and Fifth. THE WHITE DEVILS DAUGHTERS: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown, by Julia Flynn Siler. (Knopf, $28.95.) From the Gold Rush to the 1930s, a sex slave trade flourished in San Francisco's Chinatown. Siler's colorful history includes portraits of the determined women who helped thousands of Chinese girls escape to freedom. ORANGE WORLD: And Other Stories, by Karen Russell. (Knopf, $25.95.) Florida is the original or adopted home of some of America's most inventive fiction writers, Russell prominent among them. Her new collection is a feat of literary alchemy, channeling her home state's weirdness into unexpectedly affecting fantastical scenarios and landscapes. STRANGERS AND COUSINS, by Leah Hager Cohen. (Riverhead, $27.) Cheerful and lively, Cohen's new novel - set at an anarchic family gathering in rural New York - packs a lot of themes into its satisfyingly simple frame. As in a Shakespearean comedy, disparate relationships are resolved and familial love prevails. WAR AND PEACE: FDR's Final Odyssey, D-Day to Yalta, 19431945, by Nigel Hamilton. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30.) The final volume in the "F.D.R. at War" trilogy presents a heroic Roosevelt fending off myopic advisers to lead the Allies to victory. ASSAD OR WE BURN THE COUNTRY: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria, by Sam Dagher. (Little, Brown, $29.) Dagher draws on history, interviews and his own experience as a reporter in Syria to depict an utterly ruthless regime. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Library Journal Review
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this promise kept, CNN's presidential historian Brinkley (history, Rice Univ.; Rightful Heritage) presents a sweeping narrative of the U.S.-Soviet space race, culminating in Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong's lunar walk on July 20, 1969. Much of the book delves deeply into Apollo's historical roots, beginning with Robert Goddard's pioneering rocketry experiments in the 1920s; continuing with Nazi party member and SS officer Werner von Braun's development of the V1 and V2 rockets that slaughtered thousands of English citizens but which did not prevent him from becoming Kennedy's space science expert; and concluding with the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo projects (1958--72). Brinkley is at his best when sharing stories about astronauts such as John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The author concludes that, regrettably, only Kennedy's assassination in 1963 guaranteed full funding for the costly Apollo project: the cornerstone of Kennedy's New Frontier era. VERDICT Enlightening and absorbing, this account will fascinate historians, history buffs, and popular science enthusiasts. See also James Donovan's Shoot the Moon.--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA
