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ISBN: 0738202096

ISBN13: 9780738202099

Almost Heaven: Women on the Frontiers of Space

Name: Buy the paperback, not the hardback.
Item: Almost Heaven: Women on the Frontiers of Space
Rating: 5
Author: Thriftbooks.com User

By Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles

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Book Overview

The stories of the remarkable women who have bravely met two challenges: the risk of space travel and the struggle to succeed in a man's world.Almost Heaven tells the stories of the remarkable women who have bravely met two challenges: the risk of space travel and the struggle to succeed in a man's world. From Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Sally Ride in 1983 to Kalpana Chawla and Lauren Clark on the last flight of the Columbia, these women made history. Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles brings the women of space to life in this fascinating book, describing what motivates them, the pioneers who paved the way for them, and how their presence in the astronaut corps changed NASA. Setting her story against the background of the Cold War and the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Kevles takes us from Cape Canaveral to Star City in Russia and back. She describes the years of rejection before women were allowed to train as astronauts in the U.S. space program and the problems that female cosmonauts encountered in the U.S.S.R. Kevles talks to the first women chosen by NASA to be astronauts in 1978 and to many women who have followed them. These women, she shows, have not only broken down barriers to join the most exclusive men's club in the world--the space program--they have become players in the greatest adventure of our time, the human exploration of space. This paperback edition includes Kevles's thoughts on the 2005 Discovery mission and other recent developments in the space program as well as her reflections on the role of female astronauts today, and perhaps tomorrow. This description may be from another edition of this product.

Format:Hardcover

Language:English

ISBN:0738202096

ISBN13:9780738202099

Release Date:October 2003

Publisher:Basic Books

Length:288 Pages

Weight:1.30 lbs.

Dimensions:1.0" x 6.1" x 9.6"

Related Subjects

Aeronautics & Astronautics Aerospace Astronomy & Astrophysics Astronomy & Space Science Astrophysics & Space Science Aviation Biographical Biographies Biographies & History Biography & History Education & Reference Engineering Gender Studies Physics Politics & Social Sciences Professionals & Academics Science Science & Math Science & Scientists Science & Technology Scientists Social Sciences Specific Groups Textbooks Transportation Women Women's Studies

Customer Reviews

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Rated 5 stars
Buy the paperback, not the hardback.

By Thriftbooks.com User, June 28, 2006

I've just read the paperback version of this book, with all the comments people posted here about errors in the hardback printed out and by my side (thank you for posting them). It looks like they were all fixed for the paperback edition - great to see when a publishing house takes notice like that. The revised paperback version of this book is an excellent, absorbing read which I highly recommend!

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Rated 5 stars
Great Book Getting Weird Reviews

By Thriftbooks.com User, December 11, 2003

This is a great book, meticulously researched and well written. I don't know why some customers seem to have a vendetta against it, but I found no significant errors of fact, mostly just some typos."Almost Heaven" does a great job of putting the history of women in the space program in contexts of both the Cold War space race and the United States' women's movement. The contrast between the fictional Barbarella and the REAL...

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Rated 5 stars
An uplifting take on Almost Heaven

By Thriftbooks.com User, December 5, 2003

ALMOST HEAVEN is a fascinating and enlightening book. It's original, reasonable and fair-minded. I now know a lot more about the cross-cultural contrasts between the American and Soviet women who tried, and sometimes succeeded, in getting into orbit. I am especially impressed with the author's introduction of analogous problems women faced being accepted as explorers in space and in Antarctica, and I am delighted to know what...

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Rated 5 stars
Not accurate?

By Thriftbooks.com User, November 18, 2003

I disagree with the critic from Vancouver who believes there are factual errors in this book. Perhaps this person reviewed an earlier version, possibly even the galley proofs, before all facts were carefully cross-checked and verified by Bettyann Kevles and her editors. I have spent most of my career in a variety of technical and management positions at NASA and found this book to be not only accurate, but very fair to the...

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Rated 5 stars
Defying gravity and prejudice...

By Thriftbooks.com User, November 14, 2003

Just imagine what knowledge awaits us, what accomplishments are yet ahead, when peoples around the world finally set aside prejudices and bigotry, and welcome women into every aspect of the world's societies. In her book, "Composing a Life," Mary Catherine Bates aptly equates life with a work in progress, an improvisatory art in which each individual learns to combine familiar and unfamiliar components in response to new...

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