Limiting Outer Space

Alexander C.T. Geppert is Associate Professor of History and European Studies and Global Network Associate Professor at New York University Shanghai as well as NYU’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies in New York City. From 2010 to 2016 he directed the Emmy Noether research group ‘The Future in the Stars: European Astroculture and Extraterrestrial Life in the Twentieth Century’ at Freie Universität Berlin.

“[This book] offer a fascinating reevaluation of space history from European perspectives. … I consider these books in the wider context of scholarship on Europe and space, asking how the concept of astroculture adds to these literatures as well as what limits it might hold.” (Benjamin W. Goossen, Contemporary European History, June 17, 2022)“The scholarship is generally good, and the case studies are well chosen … . this volume also celebrates the paradoxes of the 1970s, when idealism, power politics, and commercial savvy were seamlessly connected.” (David Baneke, Isis, Vol. 110 (3), September, 2019)“This ambitious publication program opens up new vistas in the cultural history of the space age, moving outward from accounts that prioritize the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. … This is a book worth reading and rereading, depending upon your interests. It convinces that our understanding of the ways in which the brief, forceful projection of human beings into outer space matters has often been too limited. Limiting Outer Space … is a powerful re-survey of territory that might seem over-explored.” (De Witt Douglas Kilgore, Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 46 (3), November, 2019)“An excellent collection of essays which encompasses a wide sweep of the impact of space research and space dreams on the cultural landscape of society as a whole, beyond the limiting technological confines within which the enterprise is usually examined. … The entire book is a thoroughly worthwhile thought-provoking read.” (Barry Kent, The Observatory, Vol. 139 (1270), June, 2019)

• Introduction.- 1 Alexander C.T. Geppert; The Post-Apollo Paradox: Envisioning Limits During the Planetized 1970s.- Part I: Navigating the 1970s.- 2           Martin Collins; The 1970s: Spaceflight and Historically Interpreting the In-between Decade.- 3         Roger D. Launius; Responding to Apollo: America’s Divergent Reactions to the Moon Landings.- 4    Doug Millard; A Grounding in Space: Were the 1970s a Period of Transition in Britain’s Exploration of Outer Space?.- Part II: Reconfiguring Outer Space.- 5 Robert Poole; The Myth of Progress: 2001: A Space Odyssey.- 6         Florian Kläger; The Earthward Gaze and Self-reflexivity in Anglophone Novels of the 1970s.- 7 Thore Bjørnvig; Building Outer Space: LEGO and the Conquest of the Beyond in the 1970s.- 8 Luca Follis;The Province and Heritage of Humankind: Space Law’s Imaginary of Outer Space, 1967–1979.- Part III: Grounding Utopias.- 9 Andrew Jenks; Transnational Utopias, Space Exploration and the Association of Space Explorers, 1972–1985.- 10 Regina Peldszus; Architectural Experiments in Space: Orbital Stations, Simulators and Speculative Design, 1968–1982.- 11 Tilmann Siebeneichner; Spacelab: Peace, Progress and European Politics in Outer Space, 1973–1985.- 12 Peter J. Westwick; From the Club of Rome to Star Wars: The Era of Limits, Space Colonization and the Origins of SDI.- Epilogue.- 13 David A. Kirby; Final Frontiers? Envisioning Utopia in the Era of Limits.