"The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe: An Exploration of the American Spirit

Starman63: What must be the classic story or revelation of what the start of the space race was and would become. Fantastic.

United Kingdom on May 07, 2023

Shammo: Very lively storytelling

India on May 12, 2022

RDD: Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book, “The Right Stuff,” chronicles the diverging research of high-altitude rocket planes and spaceflight from the early 1950s through Project Mercury, contrasting the Mercury Seven astronauts with test pilots at Edwards AFB and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, with Chuck Yeager standing out as exemplifying the “right stuff” even though he was not chosen for the space program. Wolfe writes in a somewhat conversational style, working to capture the mentality of test pilots of that era and how it defined what it meant to be a pilot for generations to come, much as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and others did for pilots of the early twentieth century. Wolfe further evokes the heady emotion of the days of Mercury, when the immediacy of the Cold War turned the Space Race into a battlefront of sorts and the astronauts into Single Combat Warriors to whom the public paid homage. However, Wolfe points out that the test pilots at Edwards were skeptical of the space program, particularly as those running it initially conceived of the pilot as little more than a passenger in a capsule. Meanwhile, the test pilots in the high desert were flying rocket planes to altitudes...

United States on May 18, 2021

Luke Dennison: In some respects i wish I had read this before I had read first man by James Hansen. This is an account of America's first foray into the space race with Russia. I have to be honest, the blend of fact and fiction took me a while to get into but once I got used to that (maybe a quarter of the way through) it became both fascinating and exciting. Wolfe is able to, using this extraordinary blend of fact and fiction, to tell this story from so many angles, whether it be the astronauts, their wives, the hierarchy within NASA, politicians, the American people and the world no less. Wolfe uses techniques such as short, sharp sentences and a lot of examination marks! But for me, that worked. It took me a while to get into this but once I did, it was a cracker. Highly recommended

United Kingdom on Nov 11, 2020

D Rothwell: This is my all time favourite book, I have read it so many times. Marvel at the bravery of the seven whos right stuff takes them to the top of the top of the aviation pyramid (even though on Mercury no piloting skills are actually needed - a monkey can do the job). Belly laugh from page to page as the boys leave five gallon urine samples for the nurse, the wifes have all traces of wens, hickies, boil volcanoes, and acne trenches brushed out for the pages of Life magazine. Chortle as Ham the chimp attempts to dismember the white smocks who zap him with bolts to the feet or feed banana pellets as he flys his mission to perfection and the one eyes (photographers) who scream and push to take a picture on his safe return to earth. Watch as the boys, who wish to remain seen as pilots have the mercury capsule renamed as mercury spacecraft, a cosmetic change in name only. Even if you have no interest in early spaceflight this book will enchant you with it's snapshot of America in the 40's to 60's and it's tale of bravery, rivelry, ambition, and comradeship told throughout with rib tickling humour to the fore.

United Kingdom on Jul 21, 2014

philipot: This book furnished me with many answers to how and why the US space program fumbled its way forward in its early days. The details of the lives of the prospective flight 'Pilots' was great in giving the then existing 'Home Town USA' attitude it's place in history. This is before NASA became the organisation it eventually developed into. It also portrays the American trait of idolising the symbolic gloryification of 'potential' and 'achievement' which anoys the rest of the world when it is so much 'In you face'. But if you have any interest in that period of the 20th century this is a very good and enlightening read, written soon after the events, in a smooth, flowing manner which makes it a rather long but very worthwhile. I highly recommend this book.

United Kingdom on May 12, 2013

Solipso: This is a people-oriented look at America's entry into space. It begins with test pilots in the late 1940s and into the 1950s, especially with the guy who broke the sound barrier, Chuck Yeager. Then, after America's space program gets a jolt from the USSR's launching of the Sputnik, the story proceeds through Project Mercury to the last Mercury mission in 1963.

Be advised, Tom Wolfe does not give us a comprehensive account of Project Mercury. The astronauts, their wives, NASA people, Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, and a few other characters play roles in the story, and sometimes--particularly regarding the astronauts and their wives--the focus on them is close. But a great amount of material regarding the Mercury missions is omitted or is given only cursory examination. Obviously there is more to the history of America's early space program than the people. Even so, I doubt if the formal history, THIS NEW OCEAN: A HISTORY OF PROJECT MERCURY, includes the information about people that Wolfe includes. I may change my mind after reading THIS NEW OCEAN, but for now I think both books are necessary for a complete picture.

Also be advised, THE RIGHT STUFF is not written in...

United States on Sep 20, 2011