Margaret A. Weitekamp is chair of the Space History department at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum where she curates the Social and Cultural History of Spaceflight Collection encompassing some 5,000 pieces of space memorabilia and science fiction objects. She is also the author of Right Stuff, Wrong Sex- America's First Women in Space Program.
“Dr. Weitekamp is a dream docent, walking the reader carefully
through a hundred years of design, toys, movies, books, TV
shows, and countless other cultural artifacts to tell the
ongoing story of how space exploration has affected our
culture and vice versa. This virtuous cycle is a thrilling tale,
and along the way we meet an inspiring cast of characters, all
motivated by the same drive to explore and expand
our knowledge of our universe.” —Adam Savage, host of
Adam Savage’s Tested and former cohost of Mythbusters
“Compelling and meticulously researched, Space Craze offers a
superb chronicling of America’s longstanding love affair with
space exploration. From Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon to Star
Trek and Star Wars, Margaret Weitekamp uses a curator’s eye to
compile what is an essential tool for understanding how space
has shaped our culture.” —Christian Davenport, space reporter
for The Washington Post and author of The Space Barons: Elon
Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmo
“In Space Craze, Weitekamp deftly chronicles the expansion of
the space program in the 1960s alongside our enthusiasm for space
exploration as reflected in popular culture. She points out
how the space program and early science fiction television
were initially devoid of any people of color, perfectly setting the
stage to see how groundbreaking Star Trek was in depicting a
futuristic starship that included a racially diverse crew and
a half-human/half-alien Mr. Spock in a position of command.
Bravo.” —Adam Nimoy, director of For the Love of Spock
“Weitekamp has produced an important book on the
first great pillar of space travel: science fiction and
the power of imagination. In a readable yet detailed
manner, Weitekamp cleverly employs museum artifacts to reveal
the ways objects capture elements of national identity
and confirms once again that modern space travel is as
much about the past as about the future.”
—Howard McCurdy, author of Space and the
American Imagination
WIRED
"The first Americans to go to space and the first to travel to the
moon were surely heroes, but let’s be honest, they pretty much
looked the same: white men who were also Christian, married,
military-trained jet pilots. Early space photographers had to ask
them to stand alphabetically so they wouldn’t be mixed up in the
captions. But Margaret Weitekamp argues that not only has that been
changing, it’s partially the result of the evolution of space
science fiction. The space historian makes a solid case that
NASA—and the American public—have moved beyond the Buck Rogers
archetype for astronauts, with many people, though not all,
aspiring to the more inclusive ideals of Star Trek. It’s a smart
look at the future of NASA, while digging into its past." —Ramin
Skibba, WIRED space writer
THE SPACE REVIEW
"The book expertly tracks [changing circumstances] in society and
our interest in spaceflight, reflected not just in vehicles that
fly to space but the replicas of them enjoyed by people on
Earth."
QUEST: THE HISTORY OF SPACEFLIGHT
"Weitekamp has contributed to this discussion by relating real-life
spaceflight to its fictional forms, and bringing space down to
Earth in the form of the objects that Americans collect to indulge
their celestial enthusiasms."
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