Sputnik: The Shock of the Century - Hardcover

Dickson, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802713653 ISBN 13: 9780802713650

Publisher: Walker Books, 2007

Synopsis

On October 4, 1957, as Leave It to Beaver premiered on American television, the Soviet Union launched the space age. Sputnik, all of 184 pounds with only a radio transmitter inside its highly polished shell, became the first man-made object in space; while it immediately shocked the world, its long-term impact was even greater, for it profoundly changed the shape of the twentieth century.

In his upcoming book, Washington journalist Paul Dickson chronicles the dramatic events and developments leading up to and emanating from Sputnik's launch. Supported by groundbreaking, original research and many recently declassified documents, Sputnik offers a fascinating profile of the early American and Soviet space programs and a strikingly revised picture of the politics and personalities behind the facade of America's fledgling efforts to get into space.

Although Sputnik was unmanned, its story is intensely human. Sputnik owed its success to many people, from the earlier visionary, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, whose theories were ahead of their time, to the Soviet spokesmen strategically positioned around the world on the day the satellite was launched, who created one of the greatest public-relations events of all time. Its chief designer, however―the brilliant Sergei Korolev―remained a Soviet state secret until after his death.

Equally hidden from view was the political intrigue dominating America's early space program, as the military services jockeyed for control and identity in a peacetime world. For years, former Nazi Wernher von Braun, who ran the U.S. Army's missile program, lobbied incessantly that his Rocket Team should be handed responsibility for the first Earth-orbiting satellite. He was outraged that Sputnik beat him and America into space. For his part, President Eisenhower was secretly pleased that the Russians had launched first, because by orbiting over the United States Sputnik established the principle of "freedom of space" that could justify the spy satellites he thought essential to monitor Soviet missile buildup. As Dickson reveals, Eisenhower was, in fact, much more a master of the Sputnik crisis than he appeared to be at the time and in subsequent accounts.

The U.S. public reaction to Sputnik was monumental. In a single weekend, Americans were wrenched out of a mood of national smugness and post-war material comfort. Initial shock at and fear of the Soviets' intentions galvanized the country and swiftly prompted innovative developments that define our world today. Sputnik directly or indirectly influenced nearly every aspect of American life, from the demise of the suddenly superfluous tail fin and an immediate shift towards science in the classroom to the arms race that defined the cold war, the competition to reach the Moon, and the birth of the Internet.

By shedding new light on a pivotal era, Paul Dickson expands our knowledge of the world we now inhabit, and reminds us that the story of Sputnik goes far beyond technology and the beginning of the space age, and that its implications are still being felt today.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Dickson is the author of more than forty books, including The Joy of Keeping Score, The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary, Baseball's Greatest Quotations, and Baseball: The Presidents' Game. In addition to baseball, his specialties include Americana and language. He lives in Garrett Park, Maryland.

From Booklist:

October 4, 1957, was my tenth birthday. Long after the festivities, I was in bed, snuggled under my Roy Rogers bedspread and enjoying my best present--a new transistor radio in a snappy leather case. This was a clandestine operation since I had been ordered to go to sleep hours ago. The radio, under the cover of Roy, was playing softly as I scanned the dial. Rather than the rock 'n' roll I sought, what I heard was the excited voice of a newscaster discussing something called Sputnik, a Russian satellite that had just been launched and, judging by the newscaster's agitated tone, should be a cause of great concern to everyone.

At this point, my knowledge of the Russians was a bit sketchy. I knew, of course, that they were the bad guys, responsible for making me practice hiding under my desk to ward off fallout in the event of a nuclear attack. I knew, too, that the Russians were supposed to be very smart and very tough. I knew this because my uncle often chided my cousin and I for our lag-about ways by telling us that someday we were going to have to fight the Russians, and he--a veteran of the European theater in World War II--happened to know that they were "smart, tough sons of bitches." His prediction seemed to be coming true on my tenth birthday. I hadn't expected to be forced to fight the Russians quite so soon, and I certainly hadn't expected to contend with missiles fired from the moon (which the newscaster was saying would be the inevitable next step, after Sputnik). I didn't yet know how to spell Sputnik, but I did know it was big trouble.

In the following days and weeks, I quickly realized that I wasn't the only one worried about the Russians and their satellites, but somehow I never lost the notion that the first Sputnik belonged to me. In some part of my mind, I think I assumed that I was the first private citizen in the U.S. to hear the news. Who else would be up in the middle of the night listening to the radio? (In fact, the launch had occurred some hours before I heard about it, but it was inconceivable to me that anything newsworthy might have taken place during my birthday party.) So even as the decades rolled by, as the word Sputnik first became a part of popular culture and then receded from center stage, I continued to nod quietly to myself every time I heard the name, secure in the belief that, although everyone claimed a knowledge of Sputnik, I had a special, even secret, relationship with it.

About 20 years ago, when I happened to interview Stephen King, I had my first inkling that I might have to share a little bit of Sputnik. It turns out that King was also celebrating his tenth birthday in the fall of 1957 (on September 21, just a few days before the launch) and was also shaken by the idea of the Russians in space--so much so that he contends to this day that Sputnik was a key factor in his becoming a writer of horror fiction. Well, maybe so, but he wasn't born on October 4, and he didn't have a Roy Rogers bedspread.

After reading Paul Dickson's fascinating Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, I'm afraid my illusions are shattered once and for all. Sputnik was a slut, a tramp, and she enjoyed special relationships with virtually the entire population of the U.S. alive on October 4, 1957. Dickson has all the details: the Stephen King story is there, but that's just the beginning. Little Richard was so shocked by the appearance of Sputnik in the sky as he was performing an outdoor concert that he renounced rock 'n' roll (temporarily) and became a preacher. Ross Perot was inspired by Sputnik to create an electronics dynasty. And countless other Americans, great and small, remember the launch of Sputnik as a turning point in their lives. Damn.

As disappointed as I was to read of Sputnik's infidelity, I was also caught up in the scientific and social history surrounding the satellite's creation and its aftermath. Dickson makes the space race come alive in layman's language, and he shows how the shock of the Russians being first at something galvanized this country in all sorts of far-reaching ways. Who would have thought, for example, that Sputnik was responsible for the Summer of Love? Here's how it worked: Sputnik proved the Russians were doing a better job than we were at education, prompting the National Defense Education Act, which stressed science but also advocated creative and independent thought. A generation removed from Sputnik, young people wearied of science but used their NDEA-funded independent thinking skills to challenge the establishment on everything from civil rights and Vietnam to long hair and free love. That Sputnik was some satellite--but I've known that for 44 years. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0802713653
• ISBN 13: 9780802713650
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320