{"product_id":"into-the-cosmos-space-exploration-and-soviet-culture-9780822961611","title":"Into the Cosmos: Space Exploration and Soviet Culture","description":"The launch of the Sputnik satellite in October 1957 changed the course of human history. In the span of a few years, Soviets sent the first animal into space, the first man, and the first woman. These events were a direct challenge to the United States and the capitalist model that claimed ownership of scientific aspiration and achievement. The success of the space program captured the hopes and dreams of nearly every Soviet citizen and became a critical cultural vehicle in the country s emergence from Stalinism and the devastation of World War II. It also proved to be an invaluable tool in a worldwide propaganda campaign for socialism, a political system that could now seemingly accomplish anything it set its mind to. Into the Cosmos shows us the fascinating interplay of Soviet politics, science, and culture during the Khrushchev era, and how the space program became a binding force between these elements. The chapters examine the ill-fitted use of cosmonauts as propaganda props, the manipulation of gender politics after Valentina Tereshkova s flight, and the use of public interest in cosmology as a tool for promoting atheism. Other chapters explore the dichotomy of promoting the space program while maintaining extreme secrecy over its operations, space animals as media darlings, the history of Russian space culture, and the popularity of space-themed memorabilia that celebrated Soviet achievement and planted the seeds of consumerism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJames T. Andrews (Editor) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eJames T. Andrews\u003c\/b\u003e is professor of modern Russian history at Iowa State University, and director of the Humanities Center. He is the author or editor of four books, including \u003ci\u003eRed Cosmos: K. E. Tsiolkovskii, Grandfather of Soviet Rocketry; Science for the Masses: The Bolshevik State, Public Science, and the Popular Imagination in Soviet Russia, 1917-1934;\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMaksim Gor'kii, Science, and Revolution.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eAsif A. Siddiqi (Editor) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eAsif A. Siddiqi\u003c\/b\u003e is professor of history at Fordham University in New York. He writes and teaches on the history of science and technology as well as on modern Russian history. His books include \u003ci\u003eThe Red Rockets' Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857-1957\u003c\/i\u003e and the forthcoming \u003ci\u003eDeparture Gates: Global Histories of Space on Earth\u003c\/i\u003e. Siddiqi is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015) and the coeditor of the Studies in the History of Science and Technology series at Johns Hopkins University Press. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Pittsburgh Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51175046643986,"sku":"9780822961611","price":59.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_59f2d0ee-dcde-48f2-9ee7-64dc9f1889fb.jpg?v=1744282902","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/into-the-cosmos-space-exploration-and-soviet-culture-9780822961611","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}