This New Ocean: History of the First Space Age - Hardcover

Burrows, William E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679445218 ISBN 13: 9780679445210

Publisher: Random House USA Inc, 1998

Synopsis

A definitive history of the Space Age chronicles humankind's struggle to explore outer space, providing a fascinating look at the Soviet and American space programs from a political, scientific, and human perspective. 20,000 first printing. Tour.

About this title

Review:

More comprehensive than The Right Stuff, more critical than Apollo 13, This New Ocean is a near-perfect history of the men (and occasional women) who have "slipped the surly bonds of Earth." Eminent science journalist and space expert William E. Burrows covers just about everyone in history--from Daedalus to John Glenn--who ever designed or flew a rocket, trying to "ride the arrow" to the moon and beyond. It's a trail of testosterone from start to finish, but it makes for an engrossing read. One of Burrows' most interesting points is that without the Cold War we never would have made it into space. He writes: "...the rocket would forever serve two masters at the same time, or rather a single master with two dispositions: one for war and one for peace." Werner von Braun, Robert Goddard, and other rocketry pioneers may indeed have wanted to explore space, but they knew the only way to get there was on the military's back.

Burrows extensively researched his subject, and he seems to want to include a little bit of everything; too much detail bogs down the narrative in places. Then again, he is no apologist for the space programs of the United States and the former U.S.S.R., and to tell their complete stories requires laying a great deal of political and scientific groundwork. When it comes to the great, memorable moments in space history, Burrows really shines. In telling the stories of Sputnik's first orbit, Neil Armstrong's moonwalk, Challenger's fiery death and Sojourner's Martian road trip, he captures both the gee-whiz technological accomplishment and the very human emotions of the men and women involved. --Therese Littleton, Amazon.com

Review:

"The most successful general survey of space history yet to appear."
--The New York Times

"The most comprehensive history of humanity's efforts to explore space ever to be crammed into a single volume."
--The Washington Post

Leaving Earth for the first time was the single greatest achievement of the twentieth century. It was also an adventure of Homeric proportions. This is the story, vividly told, of how it happened. Here are American and Soviet politicians, scientists, engineers, generals, and astronauts, dueling for prestige and supremacy from within Earth's orbit to the Sea of Tranquility to the beautiful but deadly plateaus of Venus. This New Ocean is the first full account of how the Soviet space program really worked, revealing why it was doomed to fall short of the Moon; why NASA has always been driven by public relations; how science fiction provided the blueprint for reality; what the military really has in store for space; and how the migration of humans to Mars and beyond has already begun.

A Notable Book of the Year --St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A Best Sci-Tech Book of the Year --Library Journal

"Burrows offers a complete, authoritative history of the technology that allowed us to explore space and the people who created and managed that technology. . . . For those who struggle to understand the nature of humanity, it offers new insights into old paradoxes. For those who ask where we are going, it offers hope."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[An] all-encompassing and splendidly written account."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0679445218
• ISBN 13: 9780679445210
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 784