2020 Audie 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.
