The Race to the Moon Chronicled in Stamps, Postcards, and Postmarks: A Story of Puffery vs. the Pragmatic

Description

The story of the famed race to the Moon between the US and the USSR has been told countless times. The strategies of these two superpowers have often been paralleled in a way that highlights their fight for dominance and efforts to develop needed new technologies. This book will show how beneath these surface similarities, the two competing nations employed very different core tactics. It provides a new perspective of the history of the space race by analyzing that history through philately - that is, from the images on postage stamps, post cards, and letters in circulation at that time. Through this fascinating historical visual record, the author shows how the propaganda-heavy approach of the USSR eventually lost out to the more pragmatic approach of the United States. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Sputnik Triggers the USSR–USA Competition (Umberto Cavallaro)....Pages 1-64 Man in Space (Umberto Cavallaro)....Pages 65-106 The Space Race changes direction (Umberto Cavallaro)....Pages 107-152 The astronaut sits in the driver’s seat (Umberto Cavallaro)....Pages 153-208 Two tragedies block the race in space (Umberto Cavallaro)....Pages 209-240 The final leap (Umberto Cavallaro)....Pages 241-290 First Lunar Landing: The Philatelic Side of Apollo 11 (Umberto Cavallaro)....Pages 291-314 Back Matter ....Pages 315-338