Chasing the Moon was a very thorough, well-researched book about what it took to get the United States onto the moon. While a bit dry at times, this gave a ton of relevant information, especially about the political climate both here in the US and around the rest of the world during the race to space, especially between the US and Russia, but it also included (albeit briefly) information about political unrest in Europe and Africa, as well.

Other important issues that the authors touched on was racism/Civil Rights movement, equality for women, WWII, Vietnam, and the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and MLK Jr. For me, personally, I wanted to read more about a lot of the overlap between the space race and these issues, but since this was written off of research done for a multi-part documentary television series, these were all given fewer pages than they could have been. Overall, I enjoyed the book and learned a lot more than I knew about the US's history of space exploration.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the arc of this book. It has not influenced my review.

Will you be watching the American Experience film titled Chasing the Moon on PBS this week? It’s on for three nights, exploring the early days of the Space race with the Soviet Union, the Apollo 1 tragedy and the triumph of the moon landing on July 20, 1969, all while commenting on how "dreams of space dramatically intersect with dreams of democracy." CHASING THE MOON by Robert Stone and Alan Andres is the book companion and its chapters are split chronologically, beginning with "a place beyond the sky (1903 -1950)." That discusses pioneering scientists like Robert Goddard and Werner von Braun and will allow readers to contemplate the many innovative ideas and risks of that era – perhaps not unlike today's efforts in genetic engineering or artificial intelligence. The next chapter looks at the period from 1952 to 1960 and several subsequent chapters cover two or three year periods during the 1960s, with the last chapter, the final frontier, delving into events from the 1970s. Throughout there are some surprising statistics (e.g., there was a television in one-third of American households by spring 1952) and much evidence of corporate and media involvement (e.g., Colliers' early promotion and sponsoring as well as exclusive rights to the astronauts' story being given to Life magazine and subsequent promotion from Pan Am and others). Stone and Andres also seem to highlight controversial aspects like von Braun's work for Hitler, early (and offensive) comments about women in space and pleas from Edwin R. Murrow to integrate the astronaut corps. In fact, their subtitle is "The People, the Politics and the Promise that launched America into the Space Age." CHASING THE MOON has over twenty pages of notes, several brief biographical sketches of astronauts and others, plus a helpful index and numerous black and white and color photographs including iconic images.

This was a fascinating look into the history of the space race. The book starts long before the race to the moon, and delved into many aspects of the history of it, including the influence that some science fiction writers had, and the many German scientists who ended up in the US after WWII.

It moves from one part to another, and covers many people, including Arthur C. Clarke and Wernher von Braun, and places that had a part in it, such as the US, Germany, and Russia. There were many things I didn’t know, or only had a brief idea of, and this book filled in a lot of missing parts.

It may come off a little dry, especially to those who aren’t really into reading science and history, but for anyone who has an interest in space and the history of how we got to where we are, this is a perfect book to read.

This is one of many books on the space race of the 1960's due to the anniversary in July of the first manned moon landing. While it is a companion book for a television series, it is well written and researched. The authors writing style make it an interesting read. While not as detailed as others on the subject that I have read (including books on specific space flights), it provides a good overview for those interested in the subject.

I recomend this book for those looking for more information on the race to be the first to land a man on the moon.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook and Twitter pages.

Chasing the Moon is a well-researched account of humanity’s journey to the Moon and its long history. Through an astute attention to detail and a large collection of historic imagery, this full story of the space age demands to be read.

This is a deeply researched account of the history of rocket science and the many figures necessary to get a man to the Moon. We see the early days in Russia and Germany, fueled by propaganda and popular culture until extremist politics and war took over. We see the mass defection of German scientists to the US and how it advanced the timeline of the American entrance into space. We see the race to the Moon fueled by Russia’s first flight outside of the atmosphere. There are so many behind the scenes details that don’t often get discussed and they present a fascinating, essential history.

I found the early history most interesting. Many books focus on the scientific aspects of space travel and history beginning with the Moon landings, but Chasing the Moon starts with the roots of the space age and how it ingrained itself into public consciousness. It’s not surprising that science fiction had a heavy hand in exciting the world to explore beyond our atmosphere. The vision of humanity in space was sold to the masses through science fiction magazines, epic movies, news broadcasts, animated shorts, and propaganda. Seeing this narrative play out really drives home the power of the space age on twentieth century popular culture.

Chasing the Moon is a fascinating history book that dives deep into the many aspects of our journey to the Moon. If you’re looking for an intellectual catch-all history of spaceflight, you’ve found it.

Review to be published on June 6: https://reviewsandrobots.com/2019/06/06/chasing-the-moon-book-review