Red Moon Rising or Exemplar of Liberty

Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age

Author: Matthew Brzezinski

“In his exuberant narrative of the superpower space race . . . [Brzezinski] tells the story of American and Soviet decisions with remarkable dramatic—even cinematic—flair.”—The New York Times Book Review

In Red Moon Rising, Matthew Brzezinski recounts the dramatic behind-the-scenes story of the fierce battles on earth that preceded and followed the launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957. He takes us inside the Kremlin, the White House, secret military facilities, deep-cover safe houses, and the halls of Congress to bring to life the Russians and Americans who feared and distrusted their compatriots at least as much as their superpower rivals.

Drawing on original interviews and new documentary sources, Brzezinski tells a story rich in the paranoia of the time. The combatants include three U.S. presidents, survivors of the gulag, corporate chieftains, ambitious apparatchiks, rehabilitated Nazis, and a general who won the day by refusing to follow orders. The true story of the birth of the space age has never been told in such dramatic detail, and Red Moon Rising brings it vividly and memorably to life.

The Washington Post - Bryan Burrough

…however broad Brzezinski's strokes, one comes away not only entertained but informed, with a clear sense of why the pennywise Soviets leapt ahead in missile technology while the Americans, focused on developing bombers to reach Russian soil, failed to realize the importance of space until they woke beneath a communist moon…Throughout, Brzezinski remains in firm control, carving a fast-moving narrative from his own interviews and the research of others…In the end, what you think of Red Moon Rising probably depends on what you expect from popular history. Want a fun, easy read, something you can gulp down while idling in the after-school pickup line? Buy it. Want something comprehensive, authoritative, Caro-like? Pass. Whatever your preference, keep in mind the name Matthew Brzezinski. This book feels like a practice run from a young author destined for big things.

The New York Times - Mark Atwood Lawrence

There is nothing especially new in Red Moon Rising, which is heavily indebted to painstaking research by legions of historians who came before. But Brzezinski, a former Moscow correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, tells the story of American and Soviet decisions with remarkable dramatic—even cinematic—flair.

Publishers Weekly

The writing is fast-paced and crisp, the stakes high and the tension palpable from the first pages of this high-flying account of the early days of the space race between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., a race ignited by the Soviet launch of the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957. Brzezinski (Fortress America), a contributor to the New York Times Magazine, says this battle for military and technological control of space, part of the larger Cold War, had lasting consequences. Brzezinski illuminates how the space race divided Americans: for instance, then Sen. Lyndon Johnson wanted to aggressively pursue the race, but President Eisenhower thought the ambitious senator was merely seeking publicity. The author also dissects the failed American spin: despite White House claims that Sputnik was no big deal, the media knew it was huge. Sputnik II, launched a month later, was even more unsettling for Americans, causing them to question their "way of life." The principals-Khrushchev, Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles, rocket scientist Werner von Braun-are vividly realized. Yet even more than his absorbing narrative, Brzezinski's final analysis has staying power: although the U.S. caught up to the U.S.S.R., it was the Russians' early dominance in space that established the Soviet Union as a superpower equal to America. (Sept.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Kirkus Reviews

The famous satellite's shiny metal orb reflects the entire nerve-racking history of Soviet/American relations during the Cold War. Brzezinski (Fortress America: On the Front Lines of Homeland Security-An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State, 2004, etc.) brings years of experience as a Moscow-based journalist to bear on his subject, the very earliest days of the space race. His exhaustive research among newly opened archives in both Moscow and Washington is evident. He begins with a terse, dramatic description of a V-2 rocket attack on London before moving on to the cutthroat contest between former allies to find, isolate and capture Hitler's rocket technology, including the visionary scientists like Werner Von Braun (see Michael J. Neufeld's Von Braun, 2007, for more information) who created it. The story is told in fast-paced, parallel narratives with the taut undertones of a spy novel as Brzezinski intertwines the Sputnik program's technical achievements with the global conflict growing between the emerging superpowers led by Dwight Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev. Though the author focuses primarily on events leading to the launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, subsequent chapters cover the launch of Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite in February of 1958. In the process, Brzezinski demonstrates, America and Russia both changed drastically as a new culture of competition emerged. His anecdotes range from absurd (Von Braun and actor Ronald Reagan host a Disney program on "Tomorrowland") to prescient (Eisenhower observes that a war waged with atomic missiles "would be just complete, indiscriminate devastation") to terrifying (as Moscow detonates its first atomic bomb, GeneralCurtis LeMay grumbles over the lost opportunity to completely destroy Russia with an anticipatory atomic attack). Extrapolating the space race's impact on future technology, the author offers largely superfluous and obvious conclusions in the epilogue. Otherwise, his well-drawn expose of this fundamental conflict is first-rate. A chilling portrait of rocket scientists and cold warriors at work. Agent: Scott Waxman/Waxman Literary Agency

Book about: Cosmetic Surgery or Astanga Yoga

Exemplar of Liberty: Native America and the Evolution of Democracy (Native American Politics Series No. 3)

Author: Donald A Grind

A definitive study of how the founders of the United states combined European, American and Indian ideas into a new political system.

Booknews

Explains how to implement logic programming languages on parallel computers to most effectively exploit the inherent parallelism of the language and efficiently utilize the parallel architecture of the computer. Assumes basic knowledge of Prolog. No index. Maintaining the thesis that the character of American democracy evolved importantly from the examples provided by the American Indian confederacies that bordered the British colonies, the authors provide a thoroughly researched picture of how these native confederacies operated, and how important architects of American institutions and ideals perceived them. Published by the American Indian Studies Center, 3220 Campbell Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1548. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)