Colin Burgess, Kate Doolan, Bert Vis. Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon, Revised Edition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. 416 pp. $36.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8032-8509-5.
Reviewed by Walter E. Grunden
Published on H-FedHist (October, 2017)
Commissioned by Caryn E. Neumann (Miami University of Ohio Regionals)
During the Apollo 15 mission, in early August balanced, with about thirty to forty pages dedicat‐ 1971, two astronauts placed a plaque and a small ed to each astronaut. The Apollo 1 accident, which tin fgurine on the surface of the moon to memori‐ resulted in the tragic deaths of Virgil “Gus” Gris‐ alize those who had perished in the attempt to get som, Ed White, and Roger Chafee, receives the there. The plaque bore the names of US astro‐ most attention with nearly a hundred pages, nauts and Soviet cosmonauts alike, including: the while the eight Soviet cosmonauts are discussed Americans Charles A. Bassett, Roger B. Chafee, in less than ffty, which may be understandable Theodore C. Freeman, Edward G. Givens, Jr., Virgil given the greater challenges of obtaining primary I. Grissom, Elliot M. See, Jr., Edward H. White, and source material from Russian archives. Several Clifton C. Williams, Jr., and the Russians Pavel photographs are included of the astronauts and Belyayev, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Yuri Gagarin, give the reader a face to remember with the Vladimir Komarov, Viktor Patsayev, and Val‐ name. adislav Volkov. The names Valentin Bondarenko As a tribute to these fallen heroes and pio‐ and Grigori Nelyubov were not included on the neers of space exploration, this book is a welcome plaque, as the circumstances of their deaths re‐ addition to the vast literature on the US space pro‐ mained uncertain at the time, but their stories are gram and the “space race” in general. Apart from included in this collection of biographies written those who perished in the Apollo 1 accident and to commemorate the lives of these “handful of Yuri Gagarin, who gained fame as the frst man in men who died reaching for their ultimate goal-- space, many of the principals are not household the moon” (p. xxv). names, and it is only ftting that they be recog‐ The book is divided into six main chapters, nized and their sacrifces recorded for posterity. fve of which are dedicated to a narrative recon‐ The authors should be commended for shedding struction of the tragic incidents that took the lives more light on these lesser-known heroes. of the Americans, and one devoted collectively to That said, the book is not without its faws. the Soviets. Written largely in biographical style, Targeted at a general audience rather than a more the book meticulously details the lives, careers, specialized academic readership, the book’s nar‐ and deaths of the principals in the chronological rative style trades scholarly reliability for read‐ order of their passing. The coverage is fairly well ability, and the prose often tends toward the cre‐ H-Net Reviews atively descriptive, like a novel, such as recount‐ among the many anecdotes here, and there are no ing a principal’s thoughts or emotions on a partic‐ substantive arguments developed throughout. ular occasion, something that could only be Such issues should give a university press known from an interview or memoir, or a compa‐ pause when deciding to publish for a wider audi‐ rable source. For example, in the chapter on Free‐ ence. Given the challenge of selling academic man, the authors present an anecdote about his books and the declining readership of print media wife’s curious and superstitious habit of shouting over all, however, it is an understandable busi‐ “Rabbit!” on the frst day of each month to bring ness decision. But blurring the lines between pro‐ good luck, and the pilot’s thinking of it as he tax‐ fessional and popular history comes with a cost ied out for a fight: “Suddenly a funny little for both publishers and scholars alike. thought tweaked at his memory and made him This is the second edition of this book, with a smile” (p. 6). Such emotive passages are not inher‐ full decade having passed since the publication of ently problematic in themselves, but many go the frst. The authors should be commended for without attribution, and without a single formal committing themselves to additional research and citation in the entire book, one is more often than for dedicating more efort to this topic. While the not left to guess the source or simply to contem‐ emotional appeal of the book is obvious, and the plate how the authors could know such a thing. tribute to these heroes well deserved, in this re‐ This is unfortunate, because the authors conduct‐ viewer’s opinion, the book still falls short of the ed extensive research for the book, including nu‐ treatment these heroes are due. Perhaps the third merous interviews. But substance is often buried edition could tell us more about the back story of by style here. The bibliography doesn’t help much the plaque itself, and give fewer prurient details either, as it does not separate primary from sec‐ of the lives that these heroes and their families ondary sources, nor does it provide a list of inter‐ might wish to keep to themselves. viewees for quick or easy verifcation, and one of‐ ten has to search for or guess at attribution. This reviewer also found some of the authors’ editorial decisions questionable. Biography is not as easy to write as it may seem, but simply includ‐ ing more details of a person’s life doesn’t neces‐ sarily make a biography better. In every chapter there are extraneous details that do not add sub‐ stantively to our understanding of the principal, nor do they necessarily move the narrative along. In some cases, the inclusion of certain details feels downright voyeuristic, such as with the vivid de‐ scription of Bondarenko’s slow death by burning (pp. 233-234), or one of the American astronaut’s widows going on to remarry several times before succumbing to a slow, horrible death from mouth and lung cancer. Why do we need to know this, and how does it honor the heroes of this book? Se‐ rious scholars will also fnd no central thesis
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Citation: Walter E. Grunden. Review of Burgess, Colin; Doolan, Kate; Vis, Bert. Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon, Revised Edition. H-FedHist, H-Net Reviews. October, 2017.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=49501
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