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NASA and the American South

Name: NASA and the American South
Author: Brian C. Odom
ISBN: 9781683404019

Edited by Brian C. Odom and Stephen P. Waring

Published by: University of Florida Press

This volume examines NASA’s strong ties to the American South, exploring how the space program and the region have influenced each other since NASA’s founding in 1958.

348 Pages6.13 × 9.2536 b/w illus., notes, bibliography, index

Hardcover
9781683404019
Published: January 16, 2024

$90.00

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9781683404255
Published: January 16, 2024

(Ebook delivery via Leaf eReader app.)

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PDF
9781683404095
Published: January 16, 2024

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Description
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Table of Contents

An unprecedented examination of NASA’s strong ties to the American South, exploring how the space program and the region have influenced each other over 60 years

During the Cold War, federal funding for the space program transformed the southern United States as NASA built most of its major new facilities in the region and invested heavily in Project Apollo. This volume examines the economic, social, political, and cultural impacts of NASA on the South since the space program was founded in 1958 and explores how the program’s strong relationship to the region has affected NASA’s organizational culture, technological development, and programmatic goals.

Featuring contributions by scholars from a range of backgrounds, including space historians and specialists in many other fields, NASA and the American South offers perspectives on how NASA provided a springboard for the complete restructuring of communities that were home to its facilities in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. These changes unsettled previous patterns of life, and the chapters in this volume include assessments of NASA’s influence on regional development, tourism, art and architecture, religion, and Black institutions of higher education.

Bridging the gap between the history of technology and its geographical and cultural contexts, this book offers an unprecedented reevaluation of the impact of the space program on its surrounding landscape, introducing a new framework for interpreting the agency’s legacy.

Brian C. Odom is chief historian at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Stephen P. Waring is professor of history at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Odom and Waring are coeditors of the award-winning NASA and the Long Civil Rights Movement.

“Breaking new ground on issues of race, gender, religion, labor, and tourism, this volume shows the wide impact of the space program on southern culture, education, economy, and technology.”—Kenneth Lipartito, coauthor of A History of the Kennedy Space Center
“Goes well beyond traditional technical or political stories of NASA’s place amongst the events of the twentieth century and richly illustrates how it shaped the land and people of the South.”—Jennifer K. Levasseur, author of Through Astronaut Eyes: Photographing Early Human Spaceflight

List of Figures

Foreword
Douglas Brinkley

Introduction
Brian C. Odom

Part 1. Politics and Prejudice in a Southern Context

Chapter 1. Constructing Apollo: The American South and the Moon Landings
Roger D. Launius

Chapter 2. Lyndon Johnson, NASA, and the South
Andrew J. Dunar

Chapter 3. Black Education in the Shadow of Apollo: Dr. Richard D. Morrison and Alabama A&M College
Brian C. Odom

Chapter 4. Engineering with an Accent? A Discussion of the Challenger Accident
Stephen P. Waring

Part 2. Colonizing the Crescent

Chapter 5. Oranges and Rockets: The People and Technology of Cape Canaveral
Rachael Kirschenmann

Chapter 6. Local Aerospaces: Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Baikonur, Kazakhstan
Arslan Jumaniyazov

Chapter 7. “Fire in the Bucket”: The Impact of Mississippi Test Facility on Local Residents
Stuart Simms

Chapter 8. Moonshots and Moonshine: Project Apollo and the Appalachian Regional Commission
Max Campbell

Chapter 9. Apollo and the Creation of the Clear Lake Community
Jennifer Ross-Nazzal

Part 3. Leveraging Aerospace for Tourism

Chapter 10. Gateway to the Stars: Carl McIntire, Space Tourism, and the Cape Canaveral Bible Conference
Kari Edwards

Chapter 11. “Put Us on Display”: The Making of the Alabama Space and Rocket Center, 1958–1970
Emily A. Margolis

Chapter 12. Space City USA: A Theme Park of the South that Failed to Launch
Drew Adan

Part 4. Reflections in Regional Art and Architecture

Chapter 13. Architectural Modernity in NASA’s Remote South
Jeffrey S. Nesbit

Chapter 14. The Race for Space: Creating Modern Landmarks in Postwar Huntsville, Alabama
Caroline T. Swope

Chapter 15. Institutional Orbits and the Inflatable Form in the Space Age
Katarzyna Balug

Conclusion
Stephen P. Waring

List of Contributors

Index

Books

Authors

Journals

On The Site

Books

Authors

Journals

On The Site

NASA and the American South

NASA and the American South

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