Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8: The First Manned Flight to Another World [Hardcover]

Robert Zimmerman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568581181 | ISBN-13: 978-1568581187 | Publication Date: October 1998 | Edition: 1st Printing

It was Christmas Eve 1968. And the astronauts of Apollo 8 - Commander Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders - were participants in a mission that took them faster (24,000 mph) and farther from the earth (240,000 miles) than any human had ever traveled. Apollo 8 was the mission that broke humanity's absolute bond to the earth: it was the first manned vehicle to leave the earth's orbit. Confined within a tiny spaceship, the astronauts were aided in their journey by a computer less powerful than one of today's handheld calculators. Their mission was not only a triumph of engineering, but also an enduring moment in history. The words these three men spoke from lunar orbit reverberated through American society, changing our culture in ways no one predicted.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Zimmerman, who writes for the Sciences, Astronomy, and the Wall Street Journal, tells the story of the three astronauts involved in the "first manned flight to another world" as we approach its 30th anniversary. The story is well told in the astronauts' own words and through interviews with their wives and children. The sections covering selected events and personages of the Cold War and the 1960s provide a unique perspective; the role of religion in the astronauts' lives is an important theme not found elsewhere. While Apollo 8 is included in many other books on the Apollo program, Zimmerman's work is the first to cover this flight alone and to stress its monumental significance as the most important Apollo mission. A strong purchase for all academic and public libraries.?Dale Ebersole, Carlson Lib., Univ. of Toledo, OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

The year 1968 is memorable for any number of reasons, science writer Zimmerman reminds us, not the least of which was the historic flight of Apollo 8, the first manned space flight to slip out of Earth's gravitational tethers. Apollo 8, with Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders aboard, blasted off in late December of 1968, its intention to journey beyond Earth's orbit, slip into a lunar orbit, then escape again, and return. Its success was a momentous occasionthe frontiers of space had been effectively pushed out, way outalthough it was overshadowed six months later by the actual lunar landing. Zimmerman, a science and technology writer who has contributed to American Heritage, the Sciences, and other publications, has chosen two aspects of the Apollo 8 mission to emphasize. First, he depicts a space program then still the venue of the hero/ace pilot who, sacrificing family priorities and personal safety, was the Cold Warrior nonpareil. In relating this, Zimmerman situates the flight within the context of that electrifying and appalling yearthe Tet Offensive, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, student uprisings, the Chicago Democratic convention, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedywhen more than a spacecraft appeared to be spinning out of orbit. Zimmerman keeps in check this potentially hyperbolic drama, giving it a nice steady rhythm, but he loses that touch when he goes after his second theme, attempting to infuse the event with righteousness. It showed the world, Zimmerman claims, an ``American vision of moral individuality, religious tolerance and mutual respect,'' though its difficult to see the space race as an expression of such respect or to decipher the meaning of ``moral individuality'' in this context. Zimmerman does realize that perhaps the most lasting achievement of Apollo 8 is a photograph of Earthrise over the Moon. Never before had our planet seemed so small, so lonely, so vulnerableor so priceless. (photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows; 1st Printing edition (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568581181
• ISBN-13: 978-1568581187
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #829,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A first rate, well written, historical book., March 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8: The First Manned Flight to Another World (Hardcover)

I enjoyed Mr. Zimmerman's "Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8" very much. I feel it is a first rate historical book. It was well written, was easy to read and comprehend, and even more so, interesting to read. I learned more about this particular mission then I ever knew before, and rightly so. The vast majority of Americans, during this era, never really knew who these men were and in a way, still don't. Only through writers like Mr. Zimmerman, can readers learn more in depth details about these men, what the endured and even more so, what their wives and children endured.

This insight, the lives of these particular astronauts and their families, was especially interesting to me.

I am old enough, 46 to be exact, to barely remember the beginning of the space program. I was too young to comprehend at the time why it was happening, but I remember. I remember President Kennedy's speech about landing a man on the moon and returning said man to the earth before the decade was over. That speech was given in 1961.

For those of us who are old enough to remember this era, this book will certainly bring back memories and allow the reader to learn more than that person knew at the time it was all happening. For those readers whom were born after this period, this book should give them some historical insight to this era and especially to this particular mission.

Before I composed this review, I first read what the other reviewers had to say. I feel the person who gave Mr. Zimmerman a two star rating, was being too critical. He stated that half the book was about the flight and the other half was about the "Cold War" and religious insights of the astronauts. I'm sorry this person felt this way, because if it had not been for the "Cold War", I am not so sure that any human being from earth would have walked on the moon even as early as 1969. The "Cold War", which of course was between the soviet Union and the United States, drove the space race as Mr. Zimmerman described it. The "Cold War" issues, which really were not half of the book, had to be a part of his book. Read "Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon", co-written by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton, two of the original seven astronauts. It also has "Cold War" issues interwoven into the story.

As for the religious insights of the three astronauts, remember, this book is about these three men. However religious each man was, that aspect also needed to be a part of his book. I certainly did not feel that these religious insights dimished the story in any manner. After all, the title of the book, "Genesis", is also the first book in the bible. This mission was also a first. The first time that man had broken the grasp of earth's gravitational pull, and was to circle another heavenly body. These three men, were risking their lives to do what no man had ever done before. Therefore I feel it was appropriate that those passages read from "Genesis" by each man had significant meaning and in fact, maybe what the mission was all about.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Finally, an account of history's most daring spaceflight, April 12, 2004

By 

Christopher Nieman (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8: The First Manned Flight to Another World (Hardcover)

Apollo 8 was, in my opinion, the most audacious spaceflight ever achieved, possibly even more significant than the first moon landing itself. Apollo 8 was a flight full of firsts: it was the first flight to send astronauts away from the earth's influence, the first to send men to another world, and it was the first time human beings saw the earth as a whole with their own eyes. In a market full of Apollo books, this flight was long overdue for a book-length account of its own, and the task was finally done with Robert Zimmerman's book, thirty years after the flight.

I own both the hardcover and paperback versions, and I recommend the hardback for those willing to spend the extra money. The hardcover presents a number of illustrations not found in the paperback, including several color photos (compared to the paperback's photo section, which is entirely black and white). And Zimmerman's attention to detail regarding several of the photo descriptions is quite commendable.

The author does a thorough job helping to solve the mystery of just who took the "earthrise" photo, which has become one of the most famous images in the history of photography. For years the astronauts treated the question with a certain aloofness, as if the question should remain unanswered. Until this book, the photo had been left credited vaguely if at all. Indeed, even Andrew Chaikin's lauded "A Man on the Moon" devotes less than a page to this subject and leaves the question (i.e. Why have both Borman and Anders claimed credit over the years?) hanging in the ether. Here, Zimmerman pieces together the sequence of events and details that leave no doubt as to the origins of the two most particular earthrise photos. No book-length account of Apollo 8 would be complete if this was overlooked, and it makes the book worthwhile almost by itself.

Shortly afterward, Zimmerman addresses the subject which gives the book its title: the Christmas Eve reading by the crew, in lunar orbit, from the bible's Book of Genesis. He recounts Frank Borman's dilemma in searching for a Christmas message appropriate for a worldwide audience, while also capturing the significance of the flight's achievement. The fact that these men chose to read words from the bible, completely unbeknownst to NASA, is an ultimate expression of free will during one of the most important events in human history. Even though the author occasionally gets carried away while advocating religious freedom elsewhere in the book, his description here is one of the book's key moments.

The book has some flaws, and often it's when Zimmerman seeks to provide context outside of the mission. He uses the divided Berlin as a backdrop for the Cold War in the 1960s, so Apollo 8 finally becomes a symbol of freedom in contrast to the walls that communism built around itself. The comparison makes sense, but Zimmerman returns to Berlin again and again, when I felt the point was already made.

Another story tells of a U.S. Air Force helicopter pilot during the Vietnam war who eventually becomes a space shuttle astronaut. His story would make a nice magazine article, but honestly, I can't recall that it has anything at all to do with Apollo 8.

And there simply isn't enough coverage of important pre-launch and post-splashdown activities, which is inexcusable. In fact, more detail should have been provided about other technical aspects of the flight, as well. The entire sequence between liftoff and earth orbit, for example, is summed up in only two pages. There's just too much time spent establishing context and significance with not enough care devoted to the entire flight. I'm sure Zimmerman's motivation was to create a very readable account of the flight for a general audience, which it is, indeed. But the result is a less authoritative work than it could have been.

Zimmerman's book fills a major void, and it's a defining work on this historic spaceflight by default, because it is the only account of its kind. It's worth reading, even if hardcore aficionados will be left wanting.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging look at the space race and politics., May 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8: The First Manned Flight to Another World (Hardcover)

Science writer Robert Zimmerman's first book is an engaging examination of a long overlooked space mission -- Apoll 8 -- and its role in both the race to the moon and international politics. At first, the book starts off slowly and seems like a serious spin on Tom Wolf's bestseller "The Right Stuff." It's when we get to the role of the space race in international politics that the author's writing takes on a passionate fervor. Though some may wish to deny the important role of space exploration for then superpowers Soviet Union and USA, Zimmerman's argument is compelling. It is a shame that the argument was not formulated up front, though this was undoubtedly a calculated ploy on the author's and publisher's behalf to make the book more appealing to a broader spectrum of readership. This book will interest anyone with a penchant for history, politics, exploration and/or the space program and is a valuable addition to works examining the turbulent 1960's and the space program's role within the Soviet Union, the USA, and -- ultimately -- the world.