Class: Nonfiction
Reviewed by: Douglas G. Adler
Title: Earthrise: The Story of the {Photograph} that Modified the Means We See Our Planet
Writer: Leonard Marcus
Format: Hardcover/Kindle
Pages: 160
Writer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Date: March 2024
Retail worth: $21.99/$11.99
ISBN: 978-0374392116
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Many histories of the early house program exist. NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Packages have been written about nearly to the purpose of exhaustion. A fast perusal of the shelf at your native bookstore or public library will often flip up half a dozen or extra volumes that recap your entire early house program, often culminating in Apollo 11’s triumphant Moon touchdown in July, 1969.
The problem, or dare I say the trick, to such histories is uncovering one thing different authors have uncared for of their works, or protecting the fabric in a brand new method to make it fascinating and/or accessible to trendy readers.
In Earthrise: The Story of the {Photograph} That Modified the Means We See Our Planet, writer Leonard Marcus tries his hand at telling the story of the House Race. The title is, to some extent, a misnomer. Most readers with data of this period would assume that this e-book is concerning the flight of Apollo 8. On that mission, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Invoice Anders made a panoramic circumlunar flight (and not using a lunar module, so there was no risk of touchdown) and captured the well-known “Earthrise” picture that each captivated the world and graces the duvet of this e-book. Such assumptions could be fallacious, as this work is basically one other historical past of the house race, and one which basically stops with the flight of Apollo 8. The story of Apollo 8, and the way the Earthrise picture was obtained, occupies the second half of the e-book. The primary half recapitulates the inception of the house race beginning with the USSR’s launch of Sputnik in 1957 in addition to the early U.S. and Soviet house packages.
The writing itself is workmanlike and Marcus does a good job of telling the story. The primary subject is that, for all intents and functions, there’s nothing new right here. The story of Apollo 8 and the Earthrise picture has been the topic of many books. To call a number of, Jeffrey Kluger’s Apollo 8, Robert Kurson’s Rocket Males, Robert Zimmerman’s Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, and Martin Sandler’s Apollo 8: The Mission that Modified Every thing, all cowl the very same occasions, and largely in comparable manners. Add to this the truth that the final histories of Apollo, of which there are too many to listing, all commit important house to Apollo 8. A lot of the images within the e-book are acquainted from different works as properly.
None of that is an indictment of Leonard’s work, however it does function truthful discover to readers that that is very well-worn floor. The e-book is properly illustrated, and among the textual content focuses on features of the mission such because the cameras utilized by the Apollo 8 crew, the rise in reputation of the Earthrise picture, and different subjects. There’s a complete part on the Apollo sextant, utilized by the crew to make sure correct spacecraft orientation, however even this has been written about earlier than (together with, in full disclosure, an article on the very same subject that I as soon as wrote).
Of notice, Amazon.com notes that this e-book is meant for youngsters aged 10-14, however it’s not written in a tone that the majority kids’s books are written. The e-book is appropriate for each kids and adults to learn.
General, it is a well-meaning e-book that will wrestle to search out an viewers within the present market. Most 10-year-olds in 2025 should not fascinated by the occasions of Apollo 8, and adults with an curiosity within the interval have probably already learn one (or extra) of the prevailing books on this subject.
© 2025 Douglas G. Adler
