The Red Rockets' Glare

Asif A. Siddiqi is an Assistant Professor of History at Fordham University. He specializes in the social and cultural history of modern Russia and the history of science and technology. His work has been supported by the American Historical Association, the Smithsonian Institution, the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His prior book, Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974 (2000), received a number of awards including a citation by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best books ever written on space exploration. He received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and currently lives in New York.

• Introduction; 1. A space for science and a science for space; 2. 'Grief and genius'; 3. Imagining the cosmos; 4. Local action, state imperatives; 5. 'All of this requires investigation'; 6. Russians in Germany; 7. Cold War and the creation of the Soviet ICBM; 8. Fellow travelers; 9. Launching Sputnik; Conclusion.

'Asif Siddiqi, who has already written the best books on the Soviet space effort, has now given us a wonderful exploration of the social and cultural dimensions of this effort; he has given voice to those on the periphery: the populist phenomena of utopian ideas and popular imagination.' Loren Graham, MIT and Harvard University