Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century

Author:   Alexander C.T. Geppert
Publisher:   Palgrave Macmillan
Edition:   2nd ed. 2018
ISBN:  

9781349953387


Pages:   443
Publication Date:   07 May 2018
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century


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Author:   Alexander C.T. Geppert
Publisher:   Palgrave Macmillan
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
Edition:   2nd ed. 2018
Weight:   0.730kg
ISBN:  

9781349953387


ISBN 10:   1349953385
Pages:   443
Publication Date:   07 May 2018
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Figures.- Abbreviations.- Acknowledgments.- Contributors.- Introduction.- 1. European Astrofuturism, Cosmic Provincialism Historicizing the Space Age; A.C.T.Geppert.- PART I: NARRATING OUTER SPACE.- 2. Space, Time and Aliens:The Role of Imagination in Outer Space; S.J.Dick.- 3. Heaven on Earth: Tunguska, 30 June 1908; C.Schmölders.- 4. Imagining Inorganic Life: Crystalline Aliens in Science and Fiction; T.Brandstetter.- PART II: PROJECTING OUTER SPACE.- 5. Projecting Landscapes of the Human Mind onto Another World: Changing Faces of an Imaginary Mars; R.Eisfeld.- 6. 'Smash the Myth of the Fascist Rocket Baron': East German Attacks on Wernher von Braun in the 1960s; M.J.Neufeld.- 7. Transcendence of Gravity: Arthur C. Clarke and the Apocalypse of Weightlessness: T.Bjørnvig.- PART III: VISUALIZING OUTER SPACE.- 8. Per Media Ad Astra?: Outer Space in West Germany's Media, 1957-87; B.Mütter.- 9. Balloons on the Moon: Visions of Space Travel in Francophone Comic Strips; G.de Syon.- 10. 'A Stumble in the Dark': Contextualizing Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Space: 1999; H.Keazor.- PART IV: ENCOUNTERING OUTER SPACE.- 11. Life as We Don't Yet Know It: An Anthropologist's First Contact with the Science of 'Weird Life'; D.Battaglia.- 12. A Ghost in the Machine: How Sociology Tried to Explain (Away) American Flying Saucers and European Ghost Rockets, 1946-47; P.Lagrange.- 13. Seeing the Future of Civilization in the Skies of Quarouble: UFO Encounters and the Problem of Empire in Postwar France; J.Miller.- PART V: INSCRIBING OUTER SPACE.- 14. Self-Reproducing Automata and the Impossibility of SETI; G.Munévar.- 15. Inscribing Scientific Knowledge: Interstellar Communication, NASA's Pioneer Plaque, and Contact with Cultures of the Imagination, 1971-72; W.R.Macauley.- 16. Alien Spotting: Damien Hirst's Beagle 2 , Mars Lander Calibration Target and the Exploitation of Outer Space; T.Weddigen.- Epilogue.- 17. Look Up: Art in the Age of Orbitization; P.Pocock.- Bibliography.- Index.

Reviews

Reviews for the first edition: The volume succeeds in demonstrating the relevance and importance of these three threads and arguments. Each from a different author, each of whom stems from a different disciplinary background, the 15 chapters that follow the introduction emphasise and reflect each of the threads to different degrees. ... Together, the chapters survey an excellent variety of topics that fall under the astroculture umbrella ... . Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century is a giant leap in that direction. (Jason Beery, European Review of History - Revue europeenne d'histoire, Vol. 21 (6), April, 2014) Imagining Outer Space is a brilliantly organized compendium of current scholarship at the intersection between space history and the popular cultures of science/fiction. It also sheds new light on the often underplayed European contributions to imagining outer space as a richly inhabited human realm. It successfully establishes `astroculture' as an energetic and growing area of scholarly production and debate. (De Witt Douglas Kilgore, Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 41, 2014) Imagining Outer Space offers rich potential in explaining the infatuation of spaceflight by Europeans of many different nationalities and cultures. It may well jump-start a new approach to the history of spaceflight, something beyond the well-worn space-policy and geopolitical studies that are so much a part of the field. Without question, astrocultural investigation is one of the more interesting and original efforts to restructure spaceflight history in the early twenty-first century. (Roger D. Launius, Technology and Culture, Vol. 54, July, 2013) This is an eclectic, detailed ... and occasionally revelatory set of essays that delve into how (mostly Western) Europeans portrayed outer space, spaceflight and space exploration. It certainly fills a gap. (Jon Agar, The British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 46 (2), June, 2013) This volume's fifteen diverse essays, substantive introduction, and valuable epilogue all examine various aspects of 'astroculture' by considering and configuring the cultural and social significance of the Space Age both to and within the Atomic Age. ... The diverse voices and visions ... provide ample opportunities for interested readers to change-out comfortable disciplinary lenses and linguistic and conceptual toolboxes for unfamiliar optics and methodological approaches to outer space and space exploration that must surely transcend transnational and transdisciplinary boundaries. ... Fascinating. (Pamela Gossin, Isis, Vol. 104 (3), 2013) `Imagining Outer Space' offers an interdisciplinary and transnational approach to the cultural and social history of the space age in Europe. While it offers fascinating insights into the European context, it is its redrawing of the disciplinary boundaries of space history that should be most applauded. ... the volume is to be highly recommended not only to readers interested in the history of outer space and the space age. (Anke Ortlepp, H-Soz-Kult, August, 2012) Imagining Outer Space, though, takes a step in the right direction by defining the concept of astroculture and offering some interesting examples of relevant research. (Jeff Foust, The Space Review, thespacereview.com, April, 2012) With its emphasis on multidisciplinarity, and its wide variety of contributions, topics, and themes, Imagining Outer Space demonstrates the rich potential that astrocultural studies holds for the field of the history of spaceflight, while at the same time, it truly contains something for everyone. (Janet Vertesi, Quest, Vol.19 (4), 2012)


Reviews for the first edition: The volume succeeds in demonstrating the relevance and importance of these three threads and arguments. Each from a different author, each of whom stems from a different disciplinary background, the 15 chapters that follow the introduction emphasise and reflect each of the threads to different degrees. ... Together, the chapters survey an excellent variety of topics that fall under the astroculture umbrella ... . Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century is a giant leap in that direction. (Jason Beery, European Review of History - Revue europeenne d'histoire, Vol. 21 (6), April, 2014) Imagining Outer Space is a brilliantly organized compendium of current scholarship at the intersection between space history and the popular cultures of science/fiction. It also sheds new light on the often underplayed European contributions to imagining outer space as a richly inhabited human realm. It successfully establishes `astroculture' as an energetic and growing area of scholarly production and debate. (De Witt Douglas Kilgore, Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 41, 2014) Imagining Outer Space offers rich potential in explaining the infatuation of spaceflight by Europeans of many different nationalities and cultures. It may well jump-start a new approach to the history of spaceflight, something beyond the well-worn space-policy and geopolitical studies that are so much a part of the field. Without question, astrocultural investigation is one of the more interesting and original efforts to restructure spaceflight history in the early twenty-first century. (Roger D. Launius, Technology and Culture, Vol. 54, July, 2013) This is an eclectic, detailed ... and occasionally revelatory set of essays that delve into how (mostly Western) Europeans portrayed outer space, spaceflight and space exploration. It certainly fills a gap. (Jon Agar, The British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 46 (2), June, 2013) `Imagining Outer Space' offers an interdisciplinary and transnational approach to the cultural and social history of the space age in Europe. While it offers fascinating insights into the European context, it is its redrawing of the disciplinary boundaries of space history that should be most applauded. ... the volume is to be highly recommended not only to readers interested in the history of outer space and the space age. (Anke Ortlepp, H-Soz-Kult, August, 2012) Imagining Outer Space, though, takes a step in the right direction by defining the concept of astroculture and offering some interesting examples of relevant research. (Jeff Foust, The Space Review, thespacereview.com, April, 2012)


Author Information

Alexander C.T. Geppert is Associate Professor of History and European Studies and Global Network Associate Professor at New York University Shanghai as well as NYU’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies in New York City. From 2010 to 2016 he directed the Emmy Noether research group ‘The Future in the Stars: European Astroculture and Extraterrestrial Life in the Twentieth Century’ at Freie Universität Berlin.    

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