. . . THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH: A Political History of the Space Age

by Walter A. McDougall ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 10, 1985

Berkeley historian McDougall has managed to come up with a narrative history of the race for space that has a novel structure and theme, no mean feat these days. Structurally, the book alternates between the development of space research in the US and the USSR. What's new is that McDougall begins with the USSR--for, thematically, he sees the Soviets as the first example of sustained state-directed technological development in the area of space research. The origins, he says, go back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who dreamt of defying gravity in the 1880s and who was celebrated as the father of Soviet rocketry on his death in 1935. In McDougall's view, Soviet ideology requires communism to be at the forefront of technological advance, so men like Tsiolkovksy were given the freedom and resources to develop their ideas. The freedom shriveled up under Stalin, when expertise became suspect, but the rocketeers and other scientists continued to work, even in special labor camps. By tracing this history, McDougall is able to show that Soviet postwar advances in atomic weapons and delivery systems were not the result of intellectual booty from conquered Germany. On the contrary, the war interrupted work that had been going on for some time and actually delayed developments. In the US, where no comparable technocracy existed, it was the war that spurred government-directed, coordinated research. (It was here, too, that German scientists were really important.) Indeed, McDougall's main theme is that placing the technological imperative of space and its military potential at the forefront of a nation's concern leads to abrogation of economic and political freedom through creation of a technocracy. He is sympathetic to Eisenhower as someone who sensed this and tried, through NASA, to keep space research at least partially out of the hands of the military. Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon in the 1960s--partly prompted by Khruschchev's post-Sputnik bragging--then established the technological imperative in the US. But for McDougall, the Soviets are still the provocateurs of the space age, since their ideology dictates that they stay in the race and keep it going. He attributes a lot to the space race (including the idea that the government can do anything) and paints a somber vision of the grip of technocracy--offering only the hope that we will eventually see the limits of technology and restore science to moral philosophy. That's pretty heady stuff for a history--but it's part of the theme that holds McDougall's narrative together and raises it above the ordinary.

Pub Date: April 10, 1985

ISBN: 159740165X

Page Count: -

Publisher: Basic Books

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1985

Categories: NONFICTION