Book cover of Space Craze: America's Enduring Fascination with Real and Imagined Spaceflight

Book description

A space historian's tour through astounding spaceflight history and the Smithsonian's collection of space and science fiction memorabilia

Winner of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' 2024 Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award

Spanning from the 1929 debut of the futuristic Buck Rogers to present-day privatization of spaceflight, Space Craze…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Space Craze as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

In the 20th and 21st centuries, science fiction has been a major force in defining our collective imagination of what spaceflight is and why it is significant. This book puts the history of space science fiction in the context of the American space program, charting the reality of spaceflight against expectations set in popular culture.

Telling these parallel stories of real space accomplishments and fictional space exploits allows Weitekamp to reveal stories of spaceflight as inseparable from broad cultural concerns such as American identity, the frontier, race, gender, and sexuality. Weitekamp has spent her career curating the social and cultural…

From Matt's list on human connection to space.

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These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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