Pulitzer Prize History Winner
...the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age
by Walter A. McDougall
Summary
McDougall examines the space race as a contest of political systems, showing how the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union turned rockets and satellites into instruments of state power. He argues that the drive into space transformed the relationship between government, science, and technology in both nations. The book reframes the era as a story about politics and bureaucracy as much as engineering.
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Historical Context & Significance
McDougall won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1986 for this political account of the space age and the Cold War.