EARTHRISE

The inspiring and dramatic story of how one of the most powerful photos of all time came to be.

In his customary witty, well-informed way, Marcus offers a frank and coherent account of the space race, starting with an explanation of how Sputnik and the other early achievements of the Soviet space program kicked off a frantic scramble by the U.S. to catch up. NASA “morphed almost overnight into a high-profile, super-cool New Frontier operation staffed by whip-smart rocket scientists and clean-cut, highly trained All-American space cowboys.” Among the latter was Bill Anders, who snapped the iconic photo on Christmas Eve, 1968, as the Apollo 8 mission rounded the moon on the fourth of its 10 orbits. That photo—turned sideways so the lunar surface would be more comfortably horizontal—created an instant sensation; the author argues persuasively that its depiction of our fragile, floating planet not only became a symbol of Earth Day and the environmental movement, but also profoundly changed (and continues to change) “the way people understand their place in the universe.” Contemporary photos of astronauts, rockets, book covers, presidents, and marching protesters effectively convey senses of both the tumultuous historical context and the heady excitement of those early ventures into space. Along with overviews of the later lives of Anders and his two fellow crew members, the author closes with a moving reflection that Apollo’s legacies are not only scientific and technological, but human as well.

Provocative and thoughtful—rich in period details and timeless insights.