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Space and the American Imagination
by McCurdy, Howard E
- Used
- Very Good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/Very good
- ISBN 10
- 1560987642
- ISBN 13
- 9781560987642
- Seller
-
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. x,294 pages. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Howard E. McCurdy is professor of public affairs in the public administration and policy department at American University. McCurdy is considered an expert on space policy and NASA. In 1998, he was selected to be the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History, a one-year fellowship at the National Air and Space Museum. McCurdy received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. Elizabeth Hand reviewed McCurdy's history of the U.S. space program: "In Space and the American Imagination, Howard McCurdy doesn't give us the right stuff but the real stuff, the minutiae of policy debate and political razzing that brought the space program into being and seems destined to bury it. It's ... an important one [book]. Examining the popular images that have spurred Americans' enthusiasm in the space program, the author shows how the conquest of space appealed to the nation's deepest cultural ideals and became part of the Cold War effort. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: In a book guaranteed to disturb technophiles and policy wonks, McCurdy examines the relationships over the past half century among the U.S. space program, the American national character, popular culture and public policy. In a nation where the distinction between perception and reality is becoming increasingly vague, imagination--for good or ill--drives public policy and the programs that implement it, he finds. In his brilliant conclusion, McCurdy writes, "Advocates took fantastic ideas and laid upon them images already rooted in the American culture, such as the myth of the frontier. The resulting vision... had the power to excite or entertain, or as in the case of the Cold War, to frighten. The vision prevailed... not because of its technical superiority but because it aroused the imaginations of people who viewed it." McCurdy compares the evolution of space exploration to the history of other policy arenas, from nuclear power and the war on poverty, revealing a consistent pattern. Policy shifts follow shifts in popular culture, he demonstrates, and cultural shifts follow imaginative new visions. And in late-20th-century America, he makes clear, those visions [are] carried primarily by advertising and the entertainment media.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Ground Zero Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 83457
- Title
- Space and the American Imagination
- Author
- McCurdy, Howard E
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Printing [Stated]
- ISBN 10
- 1560987642
- ISBN 13
- 9781560987642
- Publisher
- Smithsonian Institution Press
- Place of Publication
- Washington DC
- Date Published
- 1997
- Keywords
- NASA, Space Program, Astronauts, Cold War, Apollo Program, Space Stations, Spacecraft, Extraterrestrial, Imagination, Policymaking, Exploration, Spaceflight
Terms of Sale
Ground Zero Books
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About the Seller
Ground Zero Books
Biblio member since 2005
Silver Spring, Maryland
About Ground Zero Books
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Much of our diverse stock is not yet listed on line. If you can't locate the book or other item that you want, please contact us. We may well have it in stock. We welcome your want lists, and encourage you to send them to us.
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