On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, so this October seems as good a time as any for a podcast on the Space Age! In this episode you can listen to Professor Kendrick Oliver as he talks to Rachel Herrmann about the Space Age, evangelicals, and his new work on cosmology.
You’ll find out what the author C. S. Lewis has to do with the Space Age, whether the Space Age was driven by religious or secular ideals, and why navy divers were so reluctant to open the command module of the Apollo 16 crew. You’ll hear about how this research has led to two additional projects, including work that covers prison ministry and the discovery of the ‘Big Bang’ theory.
You can right-click on this episode link to open it in a new window and streamĀ the podcast without having to download it, or you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes U. If you want to learn more about History at the University of Southampton, you can visit ourĀ website, follow us on Twitter, or like us onĀ Facebook. We continue to welcome feedback about things we can do to improve, or about topics youād like to see covered in future. A list of suggested reading is also included below. Thanks for stopping by!
Suggested Reading
Helge Kragh, Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the UniverseĀ (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
Kendrick Oliver, Kennedy, Macmillan and the Nuclear Test-Ban Debate, 1961-63Ā (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998).Ā Kendrick Oliver, The My Lai Massacre in American History and MemoryĀ (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006).
Kendrick Oliver, To Touch the Face of God: The Sacred, the Profane, and the American Space Program, 1957-1975(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).
Kendrick Oliver, ‘Attica, Watergate, and the Origin of Evangelical Prison Ministry, 1969-1975,’ in Axel R. Schafer, ed., American Evangelicals and the 1960sĀ (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013).
Robert Poole, Earthrise: How Man First Saw the EarthĀ (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010).Ā Audio
Credit for the Sputnik recording goes to NASA’s free Soundcloud account and this episode’s use of the clip adheres to their Media Usage Guidelines.