The Dream Of Spaceflight - Tapa blanda

First time in paperback: In the tradition of Loren Eisley-"[A] beautifully written book" (Sir Arthur C. Clarke) on the human drive to explore space. One of few truly gifted essayists who have turned their talents to science, Wyn Wachhorst here fashions a luminous meditation on the meaning of space exploration from a montage of images and reflections on humanity's dream of spaceflight. In a survey of major figures from Johannes Kepler to Wernher von Braun, he sees in the rise of spaceflight a metaphor of modern history as a recurrent story of transformation and rebirth. Other essays offer new perspectives on the nature of wonder, recall the romantic vision of the decades prior to Sputnik ("nostalgia for a bygone future"), and look at the larger meaning of the moon landing, seeing in spaceflight not only a spiritual quest in the broadest sense of the word, but a cure for the withered capacity for wonder that afflicts the postmodern mind.

Wyn Wachhorst earned his Ph.D. in American history from Stanford University and has taught history and American Studies at the University of California and San Jose State. He is the author of Thomas Alva Edison: An American Myth. He lives in Atherton, California.