Yanek Mieczkowski is Professor of History at Dowling College. He is the author of Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s and The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections.

Eisenhower's Sputnik Momentrecognizes the President's strength of leadership in the supposed furore immediately after the first Sputnik launch. Indeed the author cleverly uses the Sputnik lens to provide a critique of Eisenhower's overall leadership style.. Mieczkowski's work is highly readable and attractive to historians beyond those simply interested in space.. This work is another important building block in helping historians understand the thirty-fourth President as a rather more nuanced leader.(Journal of American Studies) Mieczkowski deftly explodes the myth of an alleged 'missile gap' between the Soviet Union and the US. He overturns as well equally fallacious perceptions that the US lagged behind the Soviet Union in the technology of launch vehicles, intercontinental missiles, and Earth satellites. Readers will gain a much-needed appreciation of how Eisenhower and his military-civilian-academic team planned and built the administrative and technical infrastructure enabling the US to enter the space age. Mieczkowski's book is thoroughly rooted in primary sources and numerous memoirs, and extends earlier scholarship by space historians R. Cargill Hall, Roger Launius, and Walter McDougall. Summing Up: Highly recommended.(Choice) Yanek Mieczkowski's assessment of Dwight D. Eisenhower's reponse to the Soviet technological feat also has important implications for broader debates over Eisenhower's presidential leadership, the creation of national security organizations, and assessments of the space race. Revealing how this episode altered the course of Eisenhower's presidency, Mieczkowski argues that it also produced some significant, albeit overlooked, accomplishments. All readers will be rewarded with Mieczkowski's superbly written narrative, enlivened with rich anecdotes and lively biographical sketches. Mieczkowski reaffirms that Eisenhower's 'Sputnik moment' remains a complicated aspect of his presidential legacy, which holds spectacular failures and missed opportunities as well as the quiet victories that the author portrays so well.(The Journal of American History)

• IntroductionPart One: Sputnik1. What Was the Sputnik "Panic"?2. "The Most Fateful Decision of His Presidency"3. Eisenhower's Reaction to Sputnik4. Eisenhower's PrinciplesPart Two: Setbacks5. Cheerleader-in-Chief6. "Gloom, Gloom, Gloom"7. Space Highs, Economic Lows8. Eisenhower's Rival9. "Radical Moves"10. Order from Chaos11. Defeat and a SCORE12. Priorities and PrestigePart Three: Space13. Satellites, Saturn, Spacemen14. Voyages, Mirages, Images15. Space, Prestige, and the 1960 Race16. Eisenhower versus KennedyConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

Yanek Mieczkowski is Professor of History at Dowling College. He is the author of Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s and The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections.

Eisenhower's Sputnik Momentrecognizes the President's strength of leadership in the supposed furore immediately after the first Sputnik launch. Indeed the author cleverly uses the Sputnik lens to provide a critique of Eisenhower's overall leadership style.. Mieczkowski's work is highly readable and attractive to historians beyond those simply interested in space.. This work is another important building block in helping historians understand the thirty-fourth President as a rather more nuanced leader.(Journal of American Studies) Mieczkowski deftly explodes the myth of an alleged 'missile gap' between the Soviet Union and the US. He overturns as well equally fallacious perceptions that the US lagged behind the Soviet Union in the technology of launch vehicles, intercontinental missiles, and Earth satellites. Readers will gain a much-needed appreciation of how Eisenhower and his military-civilian-academic team planned and built the administrative and technical infrastructure enabling the US to enter the space age. Mieczkowski's book is thoroughly rooted in primary sources and numerous memoirs, and extends earlier scholarship by space historians R. Cargill Hall, Roger Launius, and Walter McDougall. Summing Up: Highly recommended.(Choice) Yanek Mieczkowski's assessment of Dwight D. Eisenhower's reponse to the Soviet technological feat also has important implications for broader debates over Eisenhower's presidential leadership, the creation of national security organizations, and assessments of the space race. Revealing how this episode altered the course of Eisenhower's presidency, Mieczkowski argues that it also produced some significant, albeit overlooked, accomplishments. All readers will be rewarded with Mieczkowski's superbly written narrative, enlivened with rich anecdotes and lively biographical sketches. Mieczkowski reaffirms that Eisenhower's 'Sputnik moment' remains a complicated aspect of his presidential legacy, which holds spectacular failures and missed opportunities as well as the quiet victories that the author portrays so well.(The Journal of American History)

• IntroductionPart One: Sputnik1. What Was the Sputnik "Panic"?2. "The Most Fateful Decision of His Presidency"3. Eisenhower's Reaction to Sputnik4. Eisenhower's PrinciplesPart Two: Setbacks5. Cheerleader-in-Chief6. "Gloom, Gloom, Gloom"7. Space Highs, Economic Lows8. Eisenhower's Rival9. "Radical Moves"10. Order from Chaos11. Defeat and a SCORE12. Priorities and PrestigePart Three: Space13. Satellites, Saturn, Spacemen14. Voyages, Mirages, Images15. Space, Prestige, and the 1960 Race16. Eisenhower versus KennedyConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

Yanek Mieczkowski is Professor of History at Dowling College. He is the author of Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s and The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections.

Eisenhower's Sputnik Momentrecognizes the President's strength of leadership in the supposed furore immediately after the first Sputnik launch. Indeed the author cleverly uses the Sputnik lens to provide a critique of Eisenhower's overall leadership style.. Mieczkowski's work is highly readable and attractive to historians beyond those simply interested in space.. This work is another important building block in helping historians understand the thirty-fourth President as a rather more nuanced leader.(Journal of American Studies) Mieczkowski deftly explodes the myth of an alleged 'missile gap' between the Soviet Union and the US. He overturns as well equally fallacious perceptions that the US lagged behind the Soviet Union in the technology of launch vehicles, intercontinental missiles, and Earth satellites. Readers will gain a much-needed appreciation of how Eisenhower and his military-civilian-academic team planned and built the administrative and technical infrastructure enabling the US to enter the space age. Mieczkowski's book is thoroughly rooted in primary sources and numerous memoirs, and extends earlier scholarship by space historians R. Cargill Hall, Roger Launius, and Walter McDougall. Summing Up: Highly recommended.(Choice) Yanek Mieczkowski's assessment of Dwight D. Eisenhower's reponse to the Soviet technological feat also has important implications for broader debates over Eisenhower's presidential leadership, the creation of national security organizations, and assessments of the space race. Revealing how this episode altered the course of Eisenhower's presidency, Mieczkowski argues that it also produced some significant, albeit overlooked, accomplishments. All readers will be rewarded with Mieczkowski's superbly written narrative, enlivened with rich anecdotes and lively biographical sketches. Mieczkowski reaffirms that Eisenhower's 'Sputnik moment' remains a complicated aspect of his presidential legacy, which holds spectacular failures and missed opportunities as well as the quiet victories that the author portrays so well.(The Journal of American History)

• IntroductionPart One: Sputnik1. What Was the Sputnik "Panic"?2. "The Most Fateful Decision of His Presidency"3. Eisenhower's Reaction to Sputnik4. Eisenhower's PrinciplesPart Two: Setbacks5. Cheerleader-in-Chief6. "Gloom, Gloom, Gloom"7. Space Highs, Economic Lows8. Eisenhower's Rival9. "Radical Moves"10. Order from Chaos11. Defeat and a SCORE12. Priorities and PrestigePart Three: Space13. Satellites, Saturn, Spacemen14. Voyages, Mirages, Images15. Space, Prestige, and the 1960 Race16. Eisenhower versus KennedyConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex