For All Mankind [Paperback]

Harry Hurt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1990

Between December 1968 and December 1972, twenty-four men captured the imagination of the world as they voyaged to the moon. For All Mankind presents a dramatic, engrossing, and comprehensive account of what President John F. Kennedy called "the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked." Based on exclusive interviews with the Apollo astronauts, For All Mankind contains the most comprehensive and revealing firsthand accounts of space travel ever assembled. This edition has been reissued in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the first lunar landing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This stirring volume by Newsweek correspondent Hurt ( Texas Rich ) presents the reactions of the 24 astronauts who have been to the moon. Althugh some of them, particularly Neil Armstrong, are laconic while others are expansive, the overall effect of these accounts by Buzz Aldrin, Stuart Roosa, Alan Bean and the others is high drama, the more so in the light of the Challenger explosion in 1986. The period covered is 1968 to 1972, and the procedures involved in preparing for and executing lunar flight are presented in detail. The primary emphasis is on Apollo 11, with the initial moon landing, but the story of Apollo 13 and its near-fatal accident as well as the scientific advances made in the last three Apollo flights are also placed center stage. In addition, there are salient observations about what the Apollo program means to mankind. Photos not seen by PW. $50,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

Between December 1968 and December 1972 twenty-four men went to the moon; no one has been there since. For All Mankind presents a dramatic, engrossing account of the most hazardous, dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. This book is based on extensive research and exclusive interviews with the astronauts which contain the most comprehensive and revealing first-hand reports of space travel ever assembled. In their own words and from the perspective of over a decade of reflection, the astronauts share the sights, sounds, thoughts, fears, hopes and dreams they experienced during their incredible voyages.

For All Mankind recounts all the drama and danger of the moon voyages. We stay with the astronauts as the tension builds through pre-launch, earth orbit, the journey through space, moon orbit, and finally down to the lunar surface. We share the anguish of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they come within eighteen seconds of having to abort the first landing; we enjoy with Charles Conrad and Alan Bean the intoxicating experience of working on the surface of this mysterious, alien world; and we live through the terror of Apollo 13 with Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigart as they are almost lost in space.

For All Mankind is both a truly extraordinary adventure story and an important historical document relating, in the words of the men who went there, what it is like to go to the moon.

"An exhaustive overview of NASA's Apollo program, relying heavily-and successfully-on the voices of the twenty-four astronauts who went to the moon.... The meat here lies in the lunar voyage itself, an irresistible mix of danger, courage, tedium, and spectacle, evoked with unprecedented detail by those who went there."--Kirkus Reviews

"Harry Hurt's timely book is like an instant replay of the dramatic moon flight years.... Hurt tells us of the hardships and the successes of the Apollo program, the remarkable journey to the moon, of the astronauts and technicians who made it possible and the goals of the nation in space.... He masters and explains the complex technical side of the missions."--Houston Chronicle

"Irresistible yarns...underlined by the great courage of men who trusted machines, risked all and won. Hurt models their war stories into one grand collective voyage."--Chicago Tribune

"Solid and full of long-forgotten tidbits.... Mr. Hurt, in the course of 90 hours of interviews, is able to draw from [the astronauts] a broad range of emotions, from fear to tedium to exhiliration."--Washington Times

Harry Hurt III is the executive editor of T&L Golf and a contributing editor for Texas Monthly. His work has appeared in Newsweek, Texas Monthly, Esquire, Playboy, and Vanity Fair, among other publications. He has written three other books: Texas Rich, Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, and Chasing the Dream: A Mid-Life Quest for Fame and Fortune on the Pro Golf Circuit.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr (June 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871133512
• ISBN-13: 978-0871133519
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,153,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I Wish I Could Give It Zero Stars, March 7, 2006

By 

Terry Sunday (El Paso, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: For All Mankind (Hardcover)

When this book came out late in 1988, the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing was approaching. As you might expect, many books were published to commemorate--or capitalize on--this anniversary. Some of the books were quite good (Murray and Cox's excellent "Apollo The Race to the Moon," for example, which came out at about the same time). "For All Mankind," however, is not one of the good ones.

The number and magnitude of errors in this book is nothing short of astounding. Like other reviewers, I wonder where the fact checkers were. I actually kept a list of errors as I slogged through this book, until the list got too long and I got tired of the exercise in frustration. It is obvious that the writer knew absolutely nothing about the technology that got us to the moon. It is beyond me why someone with so little knowledge of rocketry and spaceflight would undertake a book of this nature.

Don't believe me? Here's a little sample (as Dave Barry would say, "I swear I'm not making this up"):

On the technique used to ignite the Saturn V's five first-stage F-1 rocket engines: "A five-hundred-volt charge was shot through the ground cable on the launchpad, and into the trunk of the Saturn 5, where its spark ignited a mixture of highly flammable turboprop gases."

That is so wrong that I don't know where to start to correct it. Or how about this one, explaining why rockets work in space (where there is no air to "push against"): "The theory of jet propulsion...was a method for tapping the power of the entire universe...[t]he rocket got its power by exchanging the finite momentum generated by its own motors for the infinite momentum generated by the gravitational forces of the solar system."

That should make anyone who even slept through a high school science class cringe. And where are the astronauts while all this "momentum exchanging" is going on? "They literally had to hang upside down from the rafters with their feet locked in titanium clamps bolted to a crossbeam directly above their heads." Does this conjure up images of the intrepid Apollo astronauts blasting into orbit like so many bats in a church steeple?

It's hard to describe just how bad "For All Mankind" is. It's inconceivable to me that such a massively flawed, scientifically and technically inaccurate book could find its way to print as the purported story of perhaps the most significant scientific achievement in history. If you have a morbid fascination to see how badly an author who clearly knows nothing about his subject can mangle the facts, check "For All Mankind" out of a library. Otherwise, don't waste your time.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A few tidbits of interest, HUGE mistakes, contrarian analysis, stilted writing, February 16, 2006

By 

S. J. Snyder "De gustibus non disputandum" (Various, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: For All Mankind (Hardcover)

First, the three biggest mistakes, most specific to the book's theme (not the Steve Wozniak/Apple/floppy disk mistakes).

And, contrary to one reviewer who complained about negativity, the three mistakes I cite do NOT require "geekness" to recognize as mistakes.

1. The brightest star in the sky? It's "Sirius," not "Cereus."

2. The astronaut on Apollo 16 is "Charlie" Duke, not "Charley."

3. Jack Schmitt never flew on Gemini. He wasn't even selected as an astronaut in time for it to have been POSSIBLE for him to fly on Gemini.

The first mistake makes me wonder just how much Hurt knows about astronomy. The second and third make me wonder just how much he knows about the astronauts he supposedly interviewed as the core of this book.

That is seconded by things such as his unsupported claim that astronauts hated their geology courses here on earth. Totally untrue. Early astronauts may not have liked boring, chalkboard lectures, but ALL the astronauts who went on the last three, "scientific" missions, LOVED the field geology classes they took before flight and were gung-ho about applying this to lunar geology upon landing.

Throw in the fact that this book doesn't have an index, has only citation footnotes, not explanatory ones, and also has a fairly thin bibliography, and you get the impression this was some stream-of-consciousness type writing.

A MUCH better book is Andrew Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon."

I was torn between one and two stars for this book. I finally gave it 1 because the tidbits of learning in here just can't offset a poor style of writing and an uninformed one to boot; it might actually be worth two stars, but people rating it unnecessarily high had to be offset.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars fun to read, but plenty of errors., March 9, 1999

By 

[e-mail] Scott McGrew (San Jose Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: For All Mankind (Paperback)

It's an enjoyable read, full of interesting tidbits I haven't found elsewhere. But be prepared for errors. Among author Harry Hunt's gaffes: --Chuck Yeager travels at Mach 1 in the X-15. --Neil Armstrong exits the LM via the top hatch. --the Challenger is destroyed by a ruptured oxygen tank.

You'll roll your eyes from time to time wondering how an otherwise smart reporter can't get his facts straight. But if you check it out from the library, what do you have to lose?