About this item
Highlights
- The Province of All Mankind is the story of a powerful idea about the cosmos.
- About the Author: Stephen Buono is a Harper & Schmidt Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.
- 348 Pages
- History, Modern
Description
About the Book
"This book narrates the birth of outer space as a realm of U.S. foreign relations and international law during the Cold War. It traces a particular way of thinking about space-one that drew a direct line between spaceflight and world peace-from the late nineteenth century through Apollo 11"--Book Synopsis
The Province of All Mankind is the story of a powerful idea about the cosmos. Born in the science-fiction literature of the nineteenth century and maturing in the Age of Apollo, this idea held that outer space should be preserved as a "sanctuary" from human strife, free from weapons, warfare, and political rivalry. If humanity could somehow leave violence behind as it moved into space, perhaps peace would finally reign.
Bucking a half-century of "space race" scholarship, Stephen Buono argues that despite waging a totalizing Cold War, the United States achieved stunning diplomatic successes that heralded the cosmos as a realm of peace and cooperation. The early story of space politics is not primarily one of militarization, but rather of political prescience and restraint. The Province of All Mankind demonstrates that space became a unique domain of American foreign relations and international law, and provides lessons for the Second Cold War unfolding over the horizon.
About the Author
Stephen Buono is a Harper & Schmidt Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.
