This highly acclaimed study approaches the space race as a problem in comparative public policy. Drawing on published literature, archival sources in both the United States and Europe, interviews with many of the key participants, and important declassified material, such as the National Security Council's first policy paper on space, McDougall examines U.S., European, and Soviet space programs and their politics. Opening with a short account of Nikolai Kibalchich, a late nineteenth-century Russian rocketry theoretician, ...
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This highly acclaimed study approaches the space race as a problem in comparative public policy. Drawing on published literature, archival sources in both the United States and Europe, interviews with many of the key participants, and important declassified material, such as the National Security Council's first policy paper on space, McDougall examines U.S., European, and Soviet space programs and their politics. Opening with a short account of Nikolai Kibalchich, a late nineteenth-century Russian rocketry theoretician, McDougall argues that the Soviet Union made its way into space first because it was the world's first "technocracy"-which he defines as "the institutionalization of technological change for state purpose." He also explores the growth of a political economy of technology in both the Soviet Union and the United States.
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Seller's Description:
New. Trade paperback (US). 584 p. 25 Illustrations, black and white. Intended for professional and scholarly audience. Intended for college/higher education audience.
The author finished writing this tome shortly after the "Challenger" exploded on lift-off, killing all seven astronauts, i.e. over three decades ago. However, a lot of space history occurred before that incident. If one did not already know, Czarist Russia had scientists working on the theory of space flight; a preponderance of the early space scientists found their inspiration in writers such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells; and, the missile gap did not exist. The book is logically divided into parts - the first two being before Sputnik;followed by a parts on the U. S. space program and the Soviet program, with a concluding part philosophizing on the space ages affect on society. Though it is a lengthy work, it is worth the read.
Braniff747
Apr 26, 2007
Outdated
This book came out in 1986--and has nothing on the Challenger disaster, the International Space Station, the Mir space station, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Columbia breakup, China's involvement in space or any of the other questions which face the space programs around the world today. It's great for understanding the early years of the space program and the political context, but much has happened since then. At best, I'd say it is a reference that will be used by others who are writing more up-to-date, and more definitive works about mankind's venture into space.
