English 101

This annotated bibliography is quite thorough and points out information which will be useful for both the reader of the bibliography and the author of an analysis of the issue

Atwill, William Dorsey. "Fire and Power: Narratives of the Space Age." Ph.D. Diss. Duke University, 1990. A deconstructive analysis of the space program using Apollo images and rhetoric.

Bainbridge, William Sims. "The Impact of Science Fiction on Attitudes Toward Technology." In Emme, Eugene M. Editor. Science Fiction and Space Futures, Past and Present. San Diego, CA: AAS History Series, Vol. 5, American Astronauti- cal Society, 1982. Pp. 121-35. In this article the author challenges the traditional interpretation that science fiction informs the reader about science and propagandizes in favor of technological progress. Instead, he finds that new schools of science fiction sometimes promulgate entirely different sets of values based on an anti- technology bias. Even so, Bainbridge documents the close linkage between science fiction as a promoter of spaceflight and other technological advances. Such a linkage was present in the Apollo program of the 1960s.

_____. The Spaceflight Revolution: A Sociological Study. New York: Wiley- Interscience, 1976. Reprint, Malabar, FL: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, 1983. This important but not entirely persuasive sociological study traces the development of the idea of spaceflight from its science-fictional beginnings through the rise of mass market magazines and compares it with the actual fact of spaceflight as it emerged in the 1960s. The author finds that a conspiracy of technological zealots manipulated the U.S. government to create an organization and fund an aggressive lunar landing program. Bainbridge asserts that "Not the public will, but private fanaticism drove men to the moon" (p. 1). The book's strength rests on Bainbridge's analysis of the American and British Interplanetary Societies, the science fiction subculture, the "Committee of the Future" (1970-1974) of the World Future Society, and the role of "fandom" in promoting spaceflight. This type of analysis, while useful, is not carefully tied to the development of public policy relating to the space program. In spite of the argument's other attractions, Bainbridge does not convincingly demonstrate how the "space boosters" were able to create Project Apollo and to persuade President Kennedy to announce his lunar decision in 1961.

de Bergerac, Cyrano. Voyage dans la Lune (The Voyage to the Moon). Paris, 1649. This books describes a fictional trip to the Moon by propulsion from firecrackers. As soldiers lit fuses to the firecrackers, the hero jumped into a gondola and tier upon tier of explosives ignited like rockets and launched him to the Moon. Thus Cyrano's hero became the first flyer in fiction to reach the Moon by means of rocket thrust, a premonition of Newton's third law of gravity about every action having an equal and opposite reaction. Once on the Moon, the character in this novel had several adventures, and later in the book he also journeyed to the Sun.

Braun, Wernher von. "Crossing the Last Frontier." Collier's. 22 March 1952, pp. 24-29, 72-73. Featuring illustrations by Chesley Bonestell, this was one of several articles written by von Braun, then technical director of the Army Ordnance Guided Missiles Development Group at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL, to generate enthusiasm in the United States for a spaceflight program that would land humans on the Moon. This and related efforts were critical in increasing public belief in the possibility of reaching the Moon, although it took the launching of Sputnik by the Soviets to propel the United States to establish a space program and the election of John F. Kennedy as president to establish a landing on the Moon within a decade as the goal of the Apollo program. Here, von Braun provided details about a space station he envisioned as "either the greatest force for peace ever devised, or one of the most terrible weapons of war--depending on who makes and controls it." This evocation of the Cold War was characteristic of the times and proved a formidable tactic in generating support for U.S. space efforts. While he spoke of the possible use of the station as a platform for the launching of atomic bombs, however, he also described peaceful, scientific uses of the station, such as meteorological observations.

Clarke, Arthur C. The Exploration of Space. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951. In this book a senior science fiction writer provided both fiction and non- fiction in one of the more representative attempts to build realistic expectations of space travel. Although largely concerned with space technology, the sequence of chapters in this influential book laid out a blueprint for the future of space exploration that included a lunar landing on the Moon and eventual colonies.

This annotated bibliography is less useful. The annotations give a general description of the text, but do not provide enough for the author to construct an analysis from. 

Alexander, Thomas W. Project Apollo: Man to the Moon. With a Foreword by Sir Bernard Lovell. Illus. by Tom Turner. New York: Harper & Row, 1964. This book describes the early history of Apollo for high school level students.

Barrett, Norman S. The Moon. New York: Franklin Watts, 1985. This short picture book for juveniles offers a description of the Moon's physical characteristics as they emerged from data provided by the Apollo missions.

Bay, Timothy. First to the Moon. New York: CPI Group, 1993. A discussion for younger readers of the first flight to the Moon, the significance of the space program, and the successes and tragedies that have occurred in space.

Becklake, John. Man and the Moon. Morristown, NJ: Silver Burdett Co., 1981. Also published in Spanish as El Hombre y la Luna. Translated by Victor Pozanco. Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Juventud, 1987. A discussion for juveniles of the Moon's physical makeup, its orbit, and of humankind's fascination with this heavenly body. Includes information on Project Apollo but is not devoted exclusively to that topic. 

Branley, Franklyn Mansfield. Man in Space to the Moon. New York: Crowell, 1970. A juvenile history written for grades 5-8.

Charleston, Gordon. Armstrong Lands on the Moon. New York: Dillon Press, 1994. A still forthcoming account for a juvenile audience by the author of Perry Reaches the North Pole.

Chester, Michael. Let's Go to the Moon. New York: Putnam, [1974], revised edition. This little book for children pictures the reader as the captain of a spaceship to the Moon. A Moon rover on the surface collects samples. Then the story carries the reader back to the orbiting spaceship and thence to Earth.

Collins, Jim. First to the Moon. New York: C.P.I., 1978. Not just about Apollo, this book for juveniles covers numerous firsts in space exploration. Also included is a chapter on the Moon's influence on writers from Shakespeare to Al Capp.

Coombs, Charles I. Project Apollo: Mission to the Moon. New York: Morrow, 1965. A 96-page illustrated history written for juveniles in grades 5-9.

Darling, David J. The Moon: A Spaceflight Away. Minneapolis, MN: Dillon Press, 1984. This book for juveniles discusses the evolution of knowledge about the Moon beginning with the invention of the telescope and carrying the story forward through the Apollo missions and what they revealed.