Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War

by Jeff Shesol

Overview

One of the Washington Post's 20 Books to Read This Summer


A riveting history of the epic orbital flight that put America back into the space race.

If the United States couldn’t catch up to the Soviets in space, how could it compete with them on Earth? That was the question facing John F. Kennedy at the height of the Cold War—a perilous time when the Soviet Union built the wall in Berlin, tested nuclear bombs more destructive than any in history, and beat the United States to every major milestone in space. The race to the heavens seemed a race for survival—and America was losing.

On February 20, 1962, when John Glenn blasted into orbit aboard Friendship 7, his mission was not only to circle the planet; it was to calm the fears of the free world and renew America’s sense of self-belief. Mercury Rising re-creates the tension and excitement of a flight that shifted the momentum of the space race and put the United States on the path to the moon. Drawing on new archival sources, personal interviews, and previously unpublished notes by Glenn himself, Mercury Rising reveals how the astronaut’s heroics lifted the nation’s hopes in what Kennedy called the "hour of maximum danger."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324003243
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	9,130
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Jeff Shesol is the author of Mercury Rising, most recently, as well as Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court and Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud That Defined a Decade, both selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He is a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and is a founding partner of West Wing Writers. A Rhodes Scholar, he holds degrees in history from Oxford University and Brown University and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The New Yorker News Desk.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Nearest to Heaven I Will Ever Get 7

Chapter 2 Supersonic 23

Chapter 3 Red Moonlight 38

Chapter 4 Zero G 55

Chapter 5 A Seven-Sided Coin 72

Chapter 6 Second in Space 93

Chapter 7 Suspended Animation 108

Chapter 8 The Problems of Men on Earth 125

Chapter 9 The First Man 142

Chapter 10 Go or No Go 164

Chapter 11 Holocaust or Humiliation 183

Chapter 12 Talking Our Extinction to Death 199

Chapter 13 Contingencies 214

Chapter 14 The Big Scrub 233

Chapter 15 Godspeed, John Glenn 253

Chapter 16 A Real Fireball 270

Chapter 17 The Big Lift 291

Epilogue Escape Velocity 316

Acknowledgments 327

Notes 333

Bibliography 377

Illustration Credits 385

Index 387

Editorial Reviews

03/08/2021

Historian Shesol (Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court) recreates in this entertaining and deeply researched account the early days of the U.S. space program, culminating with astronaut John Glenn becoming the first American to orbit Earth in February 1962. Shesol sketches Glenn’s childhood in New Concord, Ohio; service as a fighter pilot in WWII and Korea; and breaking of the transcontinental speed record in 1957. One of seven “astronaut volunteers” selected for Project Mercury, Glenn served as backup to Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom for the first suborbital flights before being picked for the Friendship 7 mission to orbit Earth. Shesol provides plenty of historical and political context, including the Soviet Union’s early lead in the space race, the Bay of Pigs, and escalating tensions in Berlin and Southeast Asia, but the book achieves liftoff in its extended depiction of Glenn’s nearly five-hour flight, vividly recreating his perspective (“As the sun began to set, it seemed to flatten into the horizon, almost to melt, pooling liquid light across the curve of the Earth”) and documenting fears that a technical issue would cause his capsule to burn up on reentry into the atmosphere. Readers will savor the hair-raising ride. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"I loved this book. From the opening lines, I was riveted—I couldn’t put it down. Even though we know the ending, Jeff Shesol somehow creates a cliffhanger—immersive history that lifts us out of the moment we’re in and transports us to a time of genuine heroes. As this book reveals, John Glenn—stoic and selfless, but also restless and ambitious—embodies what we hold most dear about being American."

Matt Damon

"The perfect book for anyone who wants to read about real life adventures and learn what makes heroes tick ... It will help you understand how some families stay together in the face of existential challenges, how American politics and industrial technology converge, and how the United States won the Cold War competition with the USSR."

Walter Clemens - New York Journal of Books

"If there’s such a thing as a white-knuckle read, this is it. But Mercury Rising is a twofer. Jeff Shesol interweaves heart-racing renderings of the dread and adrenaline of the earliest space flights with keen analysis of the geopolitical rivalry that drove the arc and pace of the space race. John Glenn emerges as both homespun hero and Cold War cat’s-paw, as well as a flesh-and-blood human being—and one hell of a pilot."

David M. Kennedy

"I had the privilege of knowing John Glenn well—I helped select him and train him as an astronaut—and Jeff Shesol has rendered the most compelling portrait I’ve seen of Glenn since the real thing. This gripping book captures the fast pace and high stakes of the space program and shows how Glenn helped win the struggle to surpass the Russians."

Robert Voas

"What a fresh and refreshing look at a familiar subject, now seen through an important geo-political lens rather than a scientific, technological, and nationalistic one. The new context is exciting, the usual characters made more vivid and dimensional. Bravo."

Ken Burns

"This is a story for the ages—the best account, ever, of the flight of Friendship 7. Shesol presents the Mercury Seven and their storied competition in a fresh and even provoking new light. Brilliantly researched and written, Mercury Rising is the book to read on the Cold War collaboration between John Kennedy and John Glenn."

Kris Stoever

"This book amazed me. It brought back such memories that I felt like I was reliving the events."

Jerry Roberts

"Shesol chronicles the early days of the space program with a historian’s attention to detail and a novelist’s flair for interesting storytelling."

Gary Day - Booklist

"[Mercury Rising] brings Glenn’s story alive again with both nostalgia and a riveting, fast-paced narrative ... Shesol does an excellent job of embedding Glenn's story into the wider Cold War context."

Douglas Brinkley - Washington Post

04/23/2021

In this dramatic account, Shesol (Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court) tells the story of the first manned American spaceflight into orbit. In the introduction, Shesol skillfully sets the scene, describing an anxious nation that watched as John Glenn prepared to launch aboard the spacecraft Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. The event transpired during a critical time in the Cold War, when the U.S. perceived increasingly aggressive behavior on the part of the Soviet Union. In 1957, with Sputnik, the USSR became the first nation to send a satellite into orbit; in 1961, they sent the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin. France and Britain were concerned about the lagging performance of the United States (their ally) in the space race; at same time, polls throughout Western Europe showed declining confidence in American strength and leadership. Adding to the sense of anxiety, the launch of Friendship 7 had been delayed several times due to cloudy weather, high Atlantic seas, and technical difficulties. While Glenn's historic launch would revitalize America's space program and help to allay the fears of the nation's allies, it would not go off without a hitch. VERDICT This well-researched and exciting read is recommended for those interested in the history of the space race or the Cold War.—Dave Pugl, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Library Journal

2021-04-24
A gripping, exhaustively detailed chronicle of America’s initial sprint in the space race seen through the eyes of the first American to orbit the Earth.

Feb. 20, 1962, was the climax of John Glenn’s storied career as a decorated Marine fighter pilot, astronaut, and, later, senator from Ohio. His journey to the Friendship 7spacecraft from New Concord—“a town that defined him but threatened to trap him”—serves an apt representation of the mythic American dream. In his latest, historian Shesol, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton, relates how Glenn got there by navigating the politics of a young world power populated by experienced generals (Dwight Eisenhower), political operators (Lyndon Johnson), young Turks (the Kennedys), and cautious NASA administrators (T. Keith Glennan and James Webb) and bureaucrats caught up in the Cold War and a space race that was often less about science than “the outward projection of power” and “a reflection of the American character.” Similar to his first two books, Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud That Defined a Decade(1998) and Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court (2010), this one is steeped in historical detail that enlivens the major politicians and the first cohort of NASA astronauts, clearly illustrating how they all both shaped and responded to an American society in transition. The author makes a compelling case that Glenn was a central figure in this transition, noting how his combination of arrogance, drive, and down-home folksiness made him a “flesh-and-blood” example of American ideals. Though Shesol could have tightened the narrative by shaving around 100 pages, this is a welcome retelling of a significant piece of the Cold War saga and the opening of the space frontier.

A good choice for readers interested in the Cold War, the space race, and the 1960s American political landscape.

Kirkus Reviews