The heavens and the earth · A political history of the space age

The space race started when America and Russia split the German rocket-scientist bounty at the end of World War II. It intensified and grew under the Cold War, and eventually subsided into mostly secret military activity as contradictions within both America and Russia sapped vitality from the race. This book covers the space race's 25 year run from the 50s to the 70s as a political entity in America under Eisenhower and Johnson and in Russia under Khrushchev.;Includes bibliographical references (pages 466-536) and index;Pulitzer Prize, History, 1986;PART I The Genesis of Sputnik -- Chapter 1 The Human Seed and Social Soil: Rocketry and Revolution -- CHAPTER 2 Political Rains and First Fruit:The Cold War and Sputnik -Conclusion -- PART II Modern Arms and Free Men: America Before Sputnik -- CHAPTER 3 Bashful Behemoth: Technology, the State, and the Birth of Deterrence -- CHAPTER 4 While Waiting for Technocracy: The ICBM and the First American Space Program -- CHAPTER 5 The Satellite Decision -- Conclusion;PART III Vanguard and Rearguard: Eisenhower and the Setting of American Space Policy -- CHAPTER 6 "A New Era of History" and a Media Riot -- CHAPTER 7 The Birth of NASA -- CHAPTER 8 A Space Strategy for the United States -- CHAPTER 9 Sparrow in the Falcon's Nest -- CHAPTER 10 The Shape of Things to Come -- Conclusion;PART IV Parabolic Ballad: Khrushchev and the Setting of Soviet Space Policy -- CHAPTER 11 Party Line -- CHAPTER 12 The Missile Bluff -- CHAPTER 13 Hammers or Sickles in Space? -- CHAPTER 14 Space Age Communism: The Khrushchevian Synthesis -- Conclusion -- PART V Kennedy, Johnson, and the Technocratic Temptation -- CHAPTER 15 Destination Moon -- CHAPTER 16 Hooded Falcons: Space Technology and assured Destruction -- CHAPTER 17 Benign Hypocrisy: American Space Diplomacy -- CHAPTER 18 Big Operator: James Webb's Space Age America -- CHAPTER 19 Second Thoughts -- Conclusion;PART VI The Heavens and the Earth: The First Twenty-five Years -- CHAPTER 20 Voyages to Tsiolkovskia -- CHAPTER 21 The Quest for a G.O.D. -- CHAPTER 22 A Fire in the Sun;Pulitzer Prize for History, 1986

Includes bibliographical references (pages 466-536) and index

Pulitzer Prize, History, 1986

PART I The Genesis of Sputnik -- Chapter 1 The Human Seed and Social Soil: Rocketry and Revolution -- CHAPTER 2 Political Rains and First Fruit:The Cold War and Sputnik -Conclusion -- PART II Modern Arms and Free Men: America Before Sputnik -- CHAPTER 3 Bashful Behemoth: Technology, the State, and the Birth of Deterrence -- CHAPTER 4 While Waiting for Technocracy: The ICBM and the First American Space Program -- CHAPTER 5 The Satellite Decision -- Conclusion

PART III Vanguard and Rearguard: Eisenhower and the Setting of American Space Policy -- CHAPTER 6 "A New Era of History" and a Media Riot -- CHAPTER 7 The Birth of NASA -- CHAPTER 8 A Space Strategy for the United States -- CHAPTER 9 Sparrow in the Falcon's Nest -- CHAPTER 10 The Shape of Things to Come -- Conclusion

PART IV Parabolic Ballad: Khrushchev and the Setting of Soviet Space Policy -- CHAPTER 11 Party Line -- CHAPTER 12 The Missile Bluff -- CHAPTER 13 Hammers or Sickles in Space? -- CHAPTER 14 Space Age Communism: The Khrushchevian Synthesis -- Conclusion -- PART V Kennedy, Johnson, and the Technocratic Temptation -- CHAPTER 15 Destination Moon -- CHAPTER 16 Hooded Falcons: Space Technology and assured Destruction -- CHAPTER 17 Benign Hypocrisy: American Space Diplomacy -- CHAPTER 18 Big Operator: James Webb's Space Age America -- CHAPTER 19 Second Thoughts -- Conclusion

PART VI The Heavens and the Earth: The First Twenty-five Years -- CHAPTER 20 Voyages to Tsiolkovskia -- CHAPTER 21 The Quest for a G.O.D. -- CHAPTER 22 A Fire in the Sun

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.