American moonshot : John F. Kennedy and the great space race

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Title:

American moonshot : John F. Kennedy and the great space race

Author:

Brinkley, Douglas, author.

Graybill, Stephen, narrator.

Summary:

On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Brinkley 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 pays homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit. -- Adapted from hardcover jacket.

General Note:

Title from disc label.

Compact discs.

Edition:

Unabridged; [14-disc version]

Physical Description:

14 audio discs (approximately 1020 min.) : CD audio, digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Genre:

Audiobooks.

Personal Subject:

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.

Corporate Subject:

United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- History -- 20th century.

Subject Term:

Space flight to the moon -- History -- 20th century.

Space race.

Astronautics and state.

Manned space flight -- History -- 20th century.

Astronautics -- Political aspects -- History -- 20th century.

Geographic Term:

Moon -- Exploration.

Author(s):

Graybill, Stephen,

Publisher:

Harper Audio,

Publication Date:

2019

ISBN:

9780062894724

Publication Information:

New York, NY : Harper Audio, [2019]

℗2019

Call Number:

CDB 629.4 BRINKLEY

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003457655	Adult Nonfiction Books on CDs	629.4 BRINKLEY	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

Just months after being elected president of the United States, John F. Kennedy announced that our nation would put a man on the moon by the decade's end. In this engrossing epic of contemporary history, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in human history.

Drawing on new primary source material and recent scholarship, Brinkley draws 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 ignited Kennedy's audacious dream.

American Moonshot is a vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation's history. And not only is it a piece of living history, but an homage to scientific ingenuity, engineering genius, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit.

Author Notes

Douglas Brinkley was born in Atlanta, Georgia on December 14, 1960. He received a B.A. from Ohio State University in 1982 and a Ph.D. from Georgetown University in 1989. He was a professor at Tulane University, Princeton University, the U.S. Naval Academy, Hofstra University, and the University of New Orleans. In 2007, he became a professor at Rice University and the James Baker Institute for Public Policy. He is a commentator for CBS News and a contributing editor to the magazine Vanity Fair.

His first book, Jean Monnet: The Path to European Unity, was published in 1992. His other works include Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House, Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, Cronkite, and Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America. He also wrote three books with historian Stephen E. Ambrose: The Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938, Witness to History, and The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today. He has won several awards including the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Naval History Prize for Driven Patriot and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

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.

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