# Book about early rocketry/space program **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 17, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149 "2013-11-17T23:32:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/1 "2013-11-17T23:32:37Z")
[Unnecessary Background] Two of my favorite pop-sci books are “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” and “Dark Sun” by Richard Rhodes, detailing the making of atomic and thermonuclear weapons, in the context of the wider scientific and political developments of the time. I was excited to notice the same author had written a book called “Arsenals of Folly” which had a big ICBM on the cover, and figured it was a similar treatment of the creation of ICBMs, since that seemed like the obvious next place to go, both chronologically and thematically. Sadly, when I finally got around to reading it, the book was a fairly short (and kinda meh) detailing of the disarmament talks of the late 80’s. But now I have a hankering to read the book I thought it was, so am looking for something that will do so. [/UB] So basically I’m interested in a good history of early rocketry and space programs. V2’s, redstones, van Braun, rocket planes, etc. I have a background in physics, so they don’t need to be (and I prefer if they weren’t) to dumbed down regarding technical details. And something that goes at least somewhat deeply into the engineering challenges and the like (so I’m not looking for a purely social history, like **The Right Stuff** ). Thanks, ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/2 "2013-11-17T23:58:52Z")
The classic book in the field is Willy Ley’s [Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel](http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t1_1&qi=Qk2LhVon84cgne3jhGzbz6gWudY_9416996810_1:253:746&bq=author%3Dwilly%2520ley%26title%3Drockets%252C%2520missiles%252C%2520and%2520space%2520travel). It first appeared in 1944, and underwent revisions almost every year as new developments occurred. The edition you want is from 1958 or 1959 when he updated it to include Sputnik. And the art is by Chesley Bonestall. It’s dated, in a way, but every other book I’ve read on the subject steals\* large amounts of stuff about history from Ley. He was there at the beginning of German amateur experimentation in the early 1930s and stayed in the forefront when he fled to America. Ley is a good writer, as well. He did reams of science popularizations and I have as many of them as I can find. Really as good as Asimov in his way. \*Yes, steals. All but verbatim. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/3 "2013-11-18T00:04:35Z")
Sometime in the late 1970’s I found a first edition hardcover copy of that book at a library sale for 50 cents. I read it to death, and later programmed my Commodore to solve rocketry equations from it. Sadly, in a fit of stupidity I gave it away to a thrift store charity a decade later. I seriously regret doing that. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/4 "2013-11-18T15:18:02Z")
That sounds like what I’m looking for, thanks. (annoyingly, went to my library since the online catelog said they had the '67 edition, but it turned out someone had just mislabeled the '44 edition. Ah well, I’ll find a later edition somewhere else) ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/5 "2013-11-18T16:25:36Z")
John D. Clark’s 1972 history of the development of liquid rocket propellants, “_[Ignition!](http://www.amazon.com/Ignition-informal-history-liquid-propellants/dp/0813507251)_,” might be another one in the same category that you’re looking for. It may be found [here](http://www.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf), as a .pdf. _Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel_ sounds like another series for me to take a look at. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/6 "2013-11-18T20:01:41Z")
I read _Space Race: The Epic Battle Between America and the Soviet Union for Dominion of Space_ by Deborah Cadbury a couple months back. Very good book on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/7 "2013-11-18T20:40:49Z")
The Ley books are really good for showing you the status of things at the time, their hopes, and as an example of the pro-space marketing which was necessary at a time when lots of people thought the idea foolish. They are not going to give you a good idea of the politics or what was going on behind the scenes. Ley did the science column for Galaxy for quite a while, and it was as good or better than Asimov’s column for F&SF. Particularly interesting are his articles on the V2 for Astounding during the War. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/8 "2013-11-18T23:42:07Z")
If you want a political history, you can’t go wrong with [The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age, by Walter A. McDougall](http://www.amazon.com/The-Heavens-Earth-Political-History/dp/1597404284/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384817429&sr=8-1&keywords=Walter+A.+McDougall%2C+The+Heavens+and+the+Earth). Won the Pulitzer Prize and everything. There are lots of more specialized books. On Sputnik, on the moon missions, on individuals like von Braun. _The Right Stuff_ is still readable. Standard history has a lot on this period. There’s some interesting analysis of how Eisenhower thought in _Ike’s Bluff_ by Evan Thomas. Space is a potentially endless time sink. Really good histories of the early days are harder to find. Fortunately, if all you want is to get a sense of the early days you don’t need too many. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/9 "2013-11-19T01:41:27Z")
For something a tad more shall-we-say-lurid, try [Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons by John Carter](http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Rockets-Occult-World-Parsons/dp/0922915970/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384825176&sr=1-6&keywords=rocket+fuel) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/10 "2013-11-19T02:34:07Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > [Unnecessary Background] > Two of my favorite pop-sci books are “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” and “Dark Sun” by Richard Rhodes, detailing the making of atomic and thermonuclear weapons, in the context of the wider scientific and political developments of the time. Off topic, but if you liked those you might like [Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon](http://www.peterdsmith.com/doomsday-men-the-real-dr-strangelove-and-the-dream-of-the-superweapon/) by P.D. Smith. It centers around the story of physicist Leo Szilard and the theoretical possibility of a cobalt-based “Doomsday Bomb”, but takes in topics as varied as the discovery of radioactivity, pulp-era science fiction, Fritz Haber’s role in the development of gas warfare, and the apocalyptic fears of the '50s and early '60s. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/11 "2013-11-19T03:30:46Z")
Here’s a bibliography: > **[Recommended books on history of astronautics, rocketry, and space.](http://astronauticsnow.com/AstronauticsHistory/)** > > History. Space and rocket history. Military history. Recommended books, textbooks, college textbooks, monographs, and tutorials. Rockets. Missiles. Spacecraft. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/12 "2013-11-19T05:24:28Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > There’s some interesting analysis of how Eisenhower thought in _Ike’s Bluff_ by Evan Thomas. _Ike’s Bluff_ is an excellent book but its subject is all of Eisenhower’s presidency. _Eisenhower’s Sputnik Moment: The Race for Space and World Prestige_ by Yanek Mieczkowski is more directly focused on Eisenhower’s role in the space program. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/13 "2013-11-19T18:18:15Z")
You might check out _[Rocket Boys](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Boys)_, which was the basis for _October Skies_. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-about-early-rocketry-space-program/674149/14 "2013-11-20T20:00:19Z")
Space Race by Deborah Cadbury is a good one. It’s a BBC book that accompanied a TV series of the same name but you don’t need to have seen the series to appreciate the book. And I think it’s good that its not been written by the Russians or Americans as it seems to be quite balanced.