This thought-provoking study by historian Monique Laney focuses on the U.S. government-assisted integration of German rocket specialists and their families into a small southern community soon after World War II. In 1950, Wernher von Braun and his team of rocket experts relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, a town that would celebrate the team, despite their essential role in the recent Nazi war effort, for their contributions to the U.S. Army missile program and later to NASA's space program. Based on oral histories, provided by members of the African American and Jewish communities, and by the rocketeers' families, co-workers, friends, and neighbors, Laney's book demonstrates how the histories of German Nazism and Jim Crow in the American South intertwine in narratives about the past. This is a critical reassessment of a singular time that links the Cold War, the Space Race, and the Civil Rights era while addressing important issues of transnational science and techlogy, and asking Americans to consider their country's own history of racism when reflecting on the Nazi past.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Yale University Press
ISBN-10
0300198035
ISBN-13
9780300198034
eBay Product ID (ePID)
214369281
Product Key Features
Author
Monique Laney
Format
Cloth over Boards, Hardback
Language
English
Subject
History: Specific Subjects
Type
Textbook
Dimensions
Weight
635g
Height
235mm
Width
156mm
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
New Haven
Spine
26mm
Content Note
5 B/w Illus.
Author Biography
Monique Laney Is Assistant Professor of History at Auburn University. She Lives in Auburn, Al.