Inventing the American Astronaut

摘要

This slim though rich, cogently argued, and highly readable book is an excellent example of how applying a new analytical framework leads to fresh insights on a familiar subject. Popular imagination has been saturated with NASA's image-making, astronauts' self-fashioning, politically charged accounts loaded with either glorifications or accusations, and imaginative journalism catering to the sensation-seeking public. Set against this background, scholarly studies have evolved from dry technical and institutional histories, to animated stories of political machinations, to the most recent social and cultural analyses, including studies of the iconic role of the American astronaut in popular culture, the institutional culture of NASA, the role and identity of the astronaut in the age of automation, the conceptualization of the astronaut's body in aerospace medicine, and multi-faceted gender issues. Drawing on the wealth of these studies, and complementing them with his own thorough research of space archives and oral interviews, Matthew Hersch has created an integrated picture of the meteoric rise and slow descent of the American astronaut as a profession.