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Gender, politics & the launch of rocketry
In her acclaimed and recently re-released "Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll," social critic and investigative journalist M.G. Lord examined the changing role of women against the backdrop of that uniquely American stereotype of femininity known as Barbie.
Now, in "Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science," Lord turns her attention to "an archetype of masculinity. . . the mid- century so-called rocket scientist." The result is an insightful collection of stories that illuminate the evolution of gender roles and political ideologies from the mid-20th century until today.
Readers meet the idiosyncratic founders of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, including Frank Malina, whose liberal politics, according to Lord,...