Space And The American Imagination

Author : Howard E. McCurdy
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 0801898684
Total Pages : 408 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Space and the American Imagination written by Howard E. McCurdy and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-03 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People dreamed of cosmic exploration—winged spaceships and lunar voyages; space stations and robot astronauts—long before it actually happened. Space and the American Imagination traces the emergence of space travel in the popular mind, its expression in science fiction, and its influence on national space programs. Space exploration dramatically illustrates the power of imagination. Howard E. McCurdy shows how that power inspired people to attempt what they once deemed impossible. In a mere half-century since the launch of the first Earth-orbiting satellite in 1957, humans achieved much of what they had once only read about in the fiction of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells and the nonfiction of Willy Ley. Reaching these goals, however, required broad-based support, and McCurdy examines how advocates employed familiar metaphors to excite interest (promising, for example, that space exploration would recreate the American frontier experience) and prepare the public for daring missions into space. When unexpected realities and harsh obstacles threatened their progress, the space community intensified efforts to make their wildest dreams come true. This lively and important work remains relevant given contemporary questions about future plans at NASA. Fully revised and updated since its original publication in 1997, Space and the American Imagination includes a reworked introduction and conclusion and new chapters on robotics and space commerce.

Author : Howard Bruce Franklin
Publisher : Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN 13 : 9781558496514
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book War Stars written by Howard Bruce Franklin and published by Univ of Massachusetts Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new and expanded edition of an already classic work, H. Bruce Franklin brings the epic story of the superweapon and the American imagination into the ominous twenty-first century, demonstrating its continuing importance both to comprehending our current predicament and to finding ways to escape from it. Sweeping through two centuries of American culture and military history, Franklin traces the evolution of superweapons from Robert Fulton's eighteenth-century submarine through the strategic bomber, atomic bomb, and Star Wars to a twenty-first century dominated by "weapons of mass destruction," real and imagined. Interweaving culture, science, technology, and history, he shows how and why the American pursuit of the ultimate defensive weapon -- guaranteed to end all war and bring universal triumph to American ideals -- has led our nation and the world into an epoch of terror and endless war.

Author : Jess Row
Publisher : Graywolf Press
ISBN 13 : 1555978819
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book White Flights written by Jess Row and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold, incisive look at race and reparative writing in American fiction, by the author of Your Face in Mine White Flights is a meditation on whiteness in American fiction and culture from the end of the civil rights movement to the present. At the heart of the book, Jess Row ties “white flight”—the movement of white Americans into segregated communities, whether in suburbs or newly gentrified downtowns—to white writers setting their stories in isolated or emotionally insulated landscapes, from the mountains of Idaho in Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping to the claustrophobic households in Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections. Row uses brilliant close readings of work from well-known writers such as Don DeLillo, Annie Dillard, Richard Ford, and David Foster Wallace to examine the ways these and other writers have sought imaginative space for themselves at the expense of engaging with race. White Flights aims to move fiction to a more inclusive place, and Row looks beyond criticism to consider writing as a reparative act. What would it mean, he asks, if writers used fiction “to approach each other again”? Row turns to the work of James Baldwin, Dorothy Allison, and James Alan McPherson to discuss interracial love in fiction, while also examining his own family heritage as a way to interrogate his position. A moving and provocative book that includes music, film, and literature in its arguments, White Flights is an essential work of cultural and literary criticism.

Author : Neal Gabler
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0679757473
Total Pages : 914 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Walt Disney written by Neal Gabler and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-10-09 with total page 914 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive portrait of one of the most important cultural figures in American history: Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a true visionary whose desire for escape, iron determination and obsessive perfectionism transformed animation from a novelty to an art form, first with Mickey Mouse and then with his feature films–most notably Snow White, Fantasia, and Bambi. In his superb biography, Neal Gabler shows us how, over the course of two decades, Disney revolutionized the entertainment industry. In a way that was unprecedented and later widely imitated, he built a synergistic empire that combined film, television, theme parks, music, book publishing, and merchandise. Walt Disney is a revelation of both the work and the man–of both the remarkable accomplishment and the hidden life. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography USA Today Biography of the Year

Author : Clark Ashton Smith
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 9780803293526
Total Pages : 398 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Out of Space and Time written by Clark Ashton Smith and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collection of classic macabre and fantastic tales from a master of pulp fiction.

Author : Beth Forrest
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350096172
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Food in Memory and Imagination written by Beth Forrest and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-13 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we engage with food through memory and imagination? This expansive volume spans time and space to illustrate how, through food, people have engaged with the past, the future, and their alternative presents. Beth M. Forrest and Greg de St. Maurice have brought together first-class contributions, from both established and up-and-coming scholars, to consider how imagination and memory intertwine and sometimes diverge. Chapters draw on cases around the world-including Iran, Italy, Japan, Kenya, and the US-and include topics such as national identity, food insecurity, and the phenomenon of knowledge. Contributions represent a range of disciplines, including anthropology, history, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. This volume is a veritable feast for the contemporary food studies scholar.

Author : Susan Schulten
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226740553
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.52/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Geographical Imagination in America, 1880-1950 written by Susan Schulten and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001-04 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Schulten examines four enduring institutions of learning that produced some of the most influential sources of geographic knowledge in modern history: maps and atlases, the National Geographic Society, the American university, and public schools."--BOOK JACKET.

Author : Wilson Harris
Publisher : Praeger
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 182 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Womb of Space written by Wilson Harris and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1983-08-17 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Julie Swarstad Johnson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780816539192
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Beyond Earth's Edge written by Julie Swarstad Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond Earth's Edge vividly captures through poetry the violence of blastoff, the wonders seen by Hubble, and the trajectories of exploration to Mars and beyond. The anthology offers a fascinating record of both national mindsets and private perspectives as poets grapple with the promise and peril of U.S. space exploration across decades and into the present.

Author : LeVar Burton
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0744090253
Total Pages : 74 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Kids Book About Imagination written by LeVar Burton and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-11-03 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A clear explanation of what the imagination is and the opportunities that come from the use of it. What is imagination? Most of us think of it as playing pretend or what happens when we’re dreaming, but imagination takes us to worlds and galaxies beyond that. Imagination helps us travel between time, space, and reality. It gives us the power to dream up the world in our own vision and encourages us to think of not just what is, but what could be. Imagination is a superpower that unlocks endless possibilities, and all by asking one simple question: what if? This is one conversation that’s never too early to start, and this book was written to be an introduction on the topic for kids. A Kids Book About Imagination features: - A large and bold, yet minimalist font design that allows kids freedom to imagine themselves in the words on the pages. - A friendly, approachable, yet empowering, kid-appropriate tone throughout. - An incredible and diverse group of authors in the series who are experts or have first-hand experience of the topic. Tackling important discourse together! The A Kids Book About series are best used when read together. Helping to kickstart challenging, empowering, and important conversations for kids and their grownups through beautiful and thought-provoking pages. The series supports an incredible and diverse group of authors, who are either experts in their field, or have first-hand experience on the topic. A Kids Co. is a new kind of media company enabling kids to explore big topics in a new and engaging way. With a growing series of books, podcasts and blogs, made to empower. Learn more about us online by searching for A Kids Co.