Just months after being elected President of the United States, John F. Kennedy made an astonishing announcement to the nation: we would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing epic of contemporary history, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to re-create one of humankind's most exciting and ambitious achievements. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo projects, which catapulted the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Drawing on new primary source material and recent scholarship, Brinkley brings to life this fascinating history as no one has before. American Moonshot is a portrait of the brilliant men and women who made this giant leap possible, the technology that enabled them to propel men beyond Earth's orbit to the moon and return them safely, and the geopolitical tensions that ignited Kennedy's audacious dream.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface : Kennedy's new ocean --Part I : Rockets : Dr. Robert Goddard meets Buck Rogers -- Kennedy, Von Braun, and the crucible of World War II -- Surviving a savage war -- Who's afraid of the V-2? -- Part II : Generation Sputnik : Spooked into the space race -- Sputnik revolution -- Missile gaps and the creation of NASA -- Mercury Seven to the rescue -- Kennedy for President -- Part III : Moonbound : Skyward with James Webb -- Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard -- "Going to the moon": Washington, DC, May 25, 1961 -- Searching for moonlight in Tulsa and Vienna -- Moon momentum with television and Gus Grissom -- Godspeed, John Glenn -- Scott Carpenter, Telstar, and presidential space touring -- Part IV : Projects Gemini and Apollo : "We chooseto go to the moon": Rice University, September 12, 1962 -- Gemini Nine and Wally Schirra -- State of space exploration -- "The space effort must go on" -- Cape Kennedy -- Epilogue : The triumph of Apollo 11.