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Title: One Giant Leap : Neil Armstrong's Stellar American Journey by Leon Wagener ISBN: 0-312-87343-3 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 24 April, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An Admirable Account Of A Stellar Life
Comment: This summer will mark the 35th anniversary of the first moon landing and Neil Armstrong's famous "one small step." Journalist Leon Wagener does an admirable job of presenting Armstrong's life story in this first-ever biography. At first glance, it may seem surprising that three and a half-decades have passed since that historic journey without a book-length account of Armstrong's life; but given the former astronaut's well-known reticence, it's more easily understood. Wagener has mined official sources and conducted more than 100 interviews in putting together this account; but sadly, Armstrong was not among those who chose to participate. Wagener has apparently managed to track down just about everyone who has known or worked with Armstrong, including his brother, classmates, fellow soldiers and aviation pioneers, business associates and others.
The Neil Armstrong who emerges in these pages is a remarkably driven person, who, growing up in the Ohio of the 1930s, dared to dream the seemingly impossible dream: that he would one day set foot on the moon. Armstrong's love of flying developed at an early age and was nurtured in college, during his service in the Korean War, his work as a test pilot in the 1950s, and his enrollment as one of the second generation of astronauts in the early 1960s.
Wagener's account begins with the launch of Apollo 11, then follows Armstrong through the years leading up to that defining journey. He also offers a throughout account of the aftermath of the flight, when Armstrong and his fellow shipmates Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins spent months journeying the globe as good-will ambassadors for NASA and their country. Also recounted here is the ironic fact that even at the space agency's moment of ultimate triumph, its base of political support was eroding; this saw the start of the budget cuts and shifting of priorities that have left the post-Apollo NASA a shadow of the proud agency of the 1960s.
Although the primary focus of this work is on the decades leading up to Apollo 11, Wagener also provides a good synopsis of Armstrong's post-astronaut career, including his decade as a university professor, his work as a pitchman for Chrysler, and his sometimes uncomfortable role as a living legend.
Wagener's text is well-organized, and his prose is vivid and engaging, though it does become a bit purple at times. But perhaps that's to be understood, and forgiven. It was President Nixon, who, upon Apollo 11's return, proclaimed that week the greatest in history since the creation. Wagener has managed to re-create the awe and majesty of that moment, and for that, he deserves thanks.--William C. Hall
Rating: 5
Summary: Joyful wonder about space over time
Comment: Neil Armstrong learned to fly before he was old enough to get a driver's
license. The kid was obsessed with sky, speed, space and stars. Leon Wagener's
"One Giant Leap: Neil Armstrong's Stellar American Journey" refreshes my own
memories of those childish wonderments. At 5, in 1957, I was charmed by the
celebrated event of the Russian dog shot into space in "their" Sputnik, and tickled
again by the US launching "our" chimp in 1961.
This international-space-program kiddie-party of lab animals (actually, what
the grownups called "the space race") captured the imagination of my
generation, in what we now look back on as a relatively innocent time. I did an
elementary school science fair project on "Animals Used in Space Experimentation."
Posterboard and magic marker were involved.
In the idyllic earliest 1960s, JFK (seemingly a hero to all of creation save
for my staunch Republican parents) spoke passionately of striving for the
stars, putting a man on the moon. Some say the assassination of JFK in 1963 was
the end of that innocent era. We who were alive then will always remember where
we were at the shattering moment we heard about that. Time stood still. Things
were never the same. They basically went to hell in a handbag.
By 1969, six years past that assassination, the US was politically and
socially divided over a range of incendiary issues, and cynicism was gradually
seeping into the viewpoints of a substantial segment of society (not yet to the
full ripening of the post-Watergate era). But, that year, as we simultaneously
watched in awe, the "one giant step" that Neil Armstrong finally planted on the
lunar surface was an ultimately memorable, timestopping moment of wonder. But
this time it was a joyous one.
My cynical hippie friends and I reverted to innocent kids watching the
impossible happen before our very eyes, enjoying a respite from that era's corrosive
malaise with its toxic evening news. I will never forget where I was or who I
was with in that much happier, timeless moment. We jumped up and down on the
bed with genuine excitement. We had grown somewhat jaded toward spacemen
in capsules now--but this was so much cooler that dogs or chimps or any
of the other men who had gone up in space. Armstrong got out, took his giant
step, and said The Words. The spirit generated by the climax of Armstrong's
mission was "One Giant Leap" in itself, an event that could somehow bridge the
chasm from the giddiness of Sputnik, over the national post-JFK-traumatic
syndrome, to a unified national invigoration. Experienced if even for a twinkling in
time, Armstrong's mission was also a leap of good will.
Wagener's background as an investigative journalist served him well for this
painstakingly-researched, highly-detailed biography. He combines that
information with some historic images and includes his own recent photo of Armstrong.
Taking us nonjudgementally through trends and events of the day, Wagener
provides readers with crucial, colorful context. The book should appeal to a
variety of readers as it covers the man himself, the evolution of the space program,
as well as its inside politics and its setting against the social and
political contexts. Wagener also recounts some very exciting test pilot and air
combat experiences, thrilling tales that could be truthfully told only about a decorated
war hero such as Armstrong.
"One Giant Leap" tells a dramatic, colorful, exciting story that is an
engaging, thought-provoking read for adults, but also could inspire girls and boys
to adventures and careers in various roles: scientists, aerodynamics engineers,
pilots and astronauts.
I am glad for Wagener's graceful, yet vigorous reminder of the possibility of
wonderment.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Book, Bad Cover
Comment: The marriage between author and publisher can be a chancy thing. Here we have a good biography of Neil Armstrong, first man to set foot on the moon. The book appears to be well-researched and credited.
Unfortunately, the publisher did not do as much work as the author. This is immediately obvious by the photo of Buzz Aldrin on the cover. There is a tiny image of Neil Armstrong reflected in the faceplate, but the main image is Aldrin. Aldrin's name tag is clearly visible through the "A" in the word GIANT.
But if you can ignore having the wrong man on the cover, the insides are worth reading. Neil's adventure is one of the great achievements of the last fifty years and has had far too little actually written about the men themselves.
This is a wonderful addition to the library of any fan of the space race.
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Title: Light This Candle : The Life & Times of Alan Shepard--America's First Spaceman by NEAL THOMPSON ISBN: 0609610015 Publisher: Crown Publishing Group Pub. Date: 23 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Comm Check... : The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia by Michael Cabbage, William Harwood ISBN: 0743260910 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 27 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The All-American Boys by Walter Cunningham ISBN: 0743458494 Publisher: I Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon by Colin Burgess, Kate Doolan, Bert Vis ISBN: 0803262124 Publisher: Bison Bks Corp Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Gemini 12: The Nasa Mission Reports (Apogee Books Space Series) by Robert Godwin ISBN: 1894959043 Publisher: Apogee Books Pub. Date: February, 2004 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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