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Moon: A Brief History
An entertaining, often surprising cultural examination of Earth's moon, through history, science, and literature, from ancient times to the present
Werewolves and Wernher von Braun, Stonehenge and the sex lives of sea corals, aborigi
Werewolves and Wernher von Braun, Stonehenge and the sex lives of sea corals, aborigi
303 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
17 people are currently reading
589 people want to read
About the author
Bernd Brunner
24 books37 followersBernd Brunner, a graduate of the Free University of Berlin and Berlin School of Economics, is an independent scholar, freelance writer, and editor of nonfiction books. He is the author of The Ocean at Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium. Lori Lantz received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from UCLA and attended the Free University of Berlin as a Fulbright Scholar.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 12, 2020
Summary: If you are a lover of the moon, this book will actually cover all the ways you might be intrigued by it. In that regard, it fills the bill at 4 stars.
Vlog to come on Instagram: WhereIsMayLing Youtube: Diary of A Speed Reader
I'm really surprised that the written reviews skew toward the negative. It is an easy read and is really a great response to a question, Hey... tell me a history of how man has thought about the moon. If you are purely thinking in terms of space, I can see how you might be confused. I was not confused by the title, so I was happy to give it 4 stars.
p. 2 - He states the point of the book in that you cannot think of what the moon means to humanity just in terms of science and its distance and physical features. As a result, I'm unclear why people are so upset. I find this actually pretty thoughtful given that all this other "stuff" is going to color our understanding of the heavens anyway.
Chap 1 - Lunar Transient phenomonum (LTP) I had no idea about this, but apparently the moon has a lot of alpha particles bouncing off and there are many incidence where you see something strange as relates to the moon. There are also incidences where you see meteors hit the moon and this can be seen from the earth with and without a telescope at times (through history).
Ch 2 - They talk about the dominant moon calendar that mattered more when planting was the core vs. the sun calendar.
CH 3 - Describes moonlight. I didn't realize the whole moon being a source of light. The issue is that if it's mostly coal and other dark materials, why do we see it as white or grey? This is because Space is that much darker, so our eye just makes a relative call.
Ch 4 - It talks about moon's reflection on snow and also on beach or other reflective surfaces. Makes for great pictures, but also is an intriguing phenomenum.
Ch 5 - The start to talk about how people put moon travel in fiction to try to understand what was going on. There's a lot of conjecture about life and animals on the moon.
Ch 6 - Talks about how close Jules Verne was to how to actually get into space and the Apollo 11 mission made his stuff even more popular, b/c he was pretty close.
Ch 7 Talks about what is the Moon made of. This is really important in thinking about how did the moon come to pass. The clues are all in what the difference in composition between the moon and the earth.
Ch 10 talks about 3 competingn theories that once existed for the moon. I have actually seen this incorrectly described in other books. 1 - the moon was a big earth rock that got spun out. 2) a big meteor the size of a planet hit the earth making it look like a pacman and then utlimately gravity closed the loop (this is more or less right). 3) something that is a bit of both with added complexity. I think 2 and 3 are somewhat fair, according to this geology book I reviewed early (when the earth had 2 moons).
Ch 11 talks about all the weird stuff having to do with the moon. Lunacy, weird moon practices, menstruation. To be fair, I actually don't care if they say they can't prove it scientifically, the experience seems too real.
Ch13 - talks about the post apollo period. It is very interesting htey talk about how recent in the history of man rail travel was and how crazy it would have been to fly to the moon let alone in the sky itself. In fact, at one point they felt that flying at all was the same as being able to fly to the moon.
i think all of that warrents 4 stars. It's well researched and cited. I have no idea why people struggle and give it 3 stars.
Vlog to come on Instagram: WhereIsMayLing Youtube: Diary of A Speed Reader
I'm really surprised that the written reviews skew toward the negative. It is an easy read and is really a great response to a question, Hey... tell me a history of how man has thought about the moon. If you are purely thinking in terms of space, I can see how you might be confused. I was not confused by the title, so I was happy to give it 4 stars.
p. 2 - He states the point of the book in that you cannot think of what the moon means to humanity just in terms of science and its distance and physical features. As a result, I'm unclear why people are so upset. I find this actually pretty thoughtful given that all this other "stuff" is going to color our understanding of the heavens anyway.
Chap 1 - Lunar Transient phenomonum (LTP) I had no idea about this, but apparently the moon has a lot of alpha particles bouncing off and there are many incidence where you see something strange as relates to the moon. There are also incidences where you see meteors hit the moon and this can be seen from the earth with and without a telescope at times (through history).
Ch 2 - They talk about the dominant moon calendar that mattered more when planting was the core vs. the sun calendar.
CH 3 - Describes moonlight. I didn't realize the whole moon being a source of light. The issue is that if it's mostly coal and other dark materials, why do we see it as white or grey? This is because Space is that much darker, so our eye just makes a relative call.
Ch 4 - It talks about moon's reflection on snow and also on beach or other reflective surfaces. Makes for great pictures, but also is an intriguing phenomenum.
Ch 5 - The start to talk about how people put moon travel in fiction to try to understand what was going on. There's a lot of conjecture about life and animals on the moon.
Ch 6 - Talks about how close Jules Verne was to how to actually get into space and the Apollo 11 mission made his stuff even more popular, b/c he was pretty close.
Ch 7 Talks about what is the Moon made of. This is really important in thinking about how did the moon come to pass. The clues are all in what the difference in composition between the moon and the earth.
Ch 10 talks about 3 competingn theories that once existed for the moon. I have actually seen this incorrectly described in other books. 1 - the moon was a big earth rock that got spun out. 2) a big meteor the size of a planet hit the earth making it look like a pacman and then utlimately gravity closed the loop (this is more or less right). 3) something that is a bit of both with added complexity. I think 2 and 3 are somewhat fair, according to this geology book I reviewed early (when the earth had 2 moons).
Ch 11 talks about all the weird stuff having to do with the moon. Lunacy, weird moon practices, menstruation. To be fair, I actually don't care if they say they can't prove it scientifically, the experience seems too real.
Ch13 - talks about the post apollo period. It is very interesting htey talk about how recent in the history of man rail travel was and how crazy it would have been to fly to the moon let alone in the sky itself. In fact, at one point they felt that flying at all was the same as being able to fly to the moon.
i think all of that warrents 4 stars. It's well researched and cited. I have no idea why people struggle and give it 3 stars.
February 22, 2026
Broad, but shallow.
A cabinet of curiosities, a glittering assortment of socio-cultural-technical moon miscellanea, assembled by Bernd Brunner — who, as a curator, is not much of a scientist (to my dislike; a pedant's tangent on that below) and less of a cultural historian than I would have hoped.
Brunner's not incapable of being, if somewhat prosaically, insightful — . . . efforts to map the moon and name its features reveal that conquest no longer is the exclusive province of kings and gunships, but includes detailed scientific investigation. The moon . . . is also a screen upon which our desires and aspirations can be projected. — but, on the whole, Moon is lacks a synthesis, or a coherent structure. It is somewhat haphazard – hence, I find the cabinet of curiosity the most fitting analogue. Unexamined class and cultural framing, another feature of the cabinet of curiosities, also implicit.
Interesting for a casual perusal or a light afternoon read. But meh.
_______
logistics of travelling to the moon in 1865 and 1969:
In Ch. 6, Lunar Passion in Paris, Brunner stops to ponder Jules Verne's technological insight in From the Earth to the Moon: Verne's spacecraft . The text's language is somewhat ambiguous on whether Verne is supposed to be seen as a muse, a pioneer, a visionary, or a prophet.
In any case, I find the narrative astonishment misplaced: if you wish to travel to the Moon, you need a certain acceleration, given by simple enough tinkering with Newton's laws, hence you get a spit, and so, over a known distance, you get a time of travel. For that given duration and goal, a certain minimized crew count might be thought most sensible, which needs some space each, so that your crew members don't all get a crick in their neck and enough air available to not die — voilà, you get an estimate for capsule's desired volume. Now, consider that and also how much energy you have available to put into hurling your object into space at the acceleration given above, and that will give you a mass you can get away with. Take those two, pick a material, divide density, find out your capsule thickness. (Say, pick out something light, perhaps? It is a lot of thing to hurl at a lot of speed. Something brand new and futuristic to you, 1860s man?) Cross-reference if you think your walls are too thin now and forces upon exit will squash your space exploration tin can into a spheroid with some haphazard organics on the inside.
My point being: you land in the order of magnitude of Apollo handily by a couple of reasonable assumptions about the pragmatics of exploration and some physics the 19th century already has access to.
I should check if Verne could and did that, actually. And how. I can do some step-by-step calculations. That'd be fun. (Update to come. Sometime. When I have the time. Research might get delayed due to me not knowing French.)
_______
notes on the book as a physical object:
(2010 Yale University Press, Hardback ed.)
This is a glued spine hardcover, which means that the page block is pinned in-between the covers like a tortuted body to a rack, and made to conform the arcs of mechanical stress to the 90° degree angle of a linen-lookalike-clad scaffold cardboard, and it fights you to remain open, and goes ssssq c r e e eeeeak ck when you do.
The paper is acid-free, a promise of longevity made by a tree and then immediately silenced in the dark of the forest.
It rankles. This is elegantly formatted, an internally obviously well-considered object as a piece of design, courtesy of Sonia L. Shannon. That consideration stops off the edge of the page - is the heft of hardcovers, their aura of luxury, the justification of price tag writ in the literal taking-up-of-more-space-in-a-bookshop their potential as castanets in a pinch that tempting?
Should you be procuring one of these, go for the paperback.
A cabinet of curiosities, a glittering assortment of socio-cultural-technical moon miscellanea, assembled by Bernd Brunner — who, as a curator, is not much of a scientist (to my dislike; a pedant's tangent on that below) and less of a cultural historian than I would have hoped.
Brunner's not incapable of being, if somewhat prosaically, insightful — . . . efforts to map the moon and name its features reveal that conquest no longer is the exclusive province of kings and gunships, but includes detailed scientific investigation. The moon . . . is also a screen upon which our desires and aspirations can be projected. — but, on the whole, Moon is lacks a synthesis, or a coherent structure. It is somewhat haphazard – hence, I find the cabinet of curiosity the most fitting analogue. Unexamined class and cultural framing, another feature of the cabinet of curiosities, also implicit.
Interesting for a casual perusal or a light afternoon read. But meh.
_______
logistics of travelling to the moon in 1865 and 1969:
In Ch. 6, Lunar Passion in Paris, Brunner stops to ponder Jules Verne's technological insight in From the Earth to the Moon: Verne's spacecraft . The text's language is somewhat ambiguous on whether Verne is supposed to be seen as a muse, a pioneer, a visionary, or a prophet.
In any case, I find the narrative astonishment misplaced: if you wish to travel to the Moon, you need a certain acceleration, given by simple enough tinkering with Newton's laws, hence you get a spit, and so, over a known distance, you get a time of travel. For that given duration and goal, a certain minimized crew count might be thought most sensible, which needs some space each, so that your crew members don't all get a crick in their neck and enough air available to not die — voilà, you get an estimate for capsule's desired volume. Now, consider that and also how much energy you have available to put into hurling your object into space at the acceleration given above, and that will give you a mass you can get away with. Take those two, pick a material, divide density, find out your capsule thickness. (Say, pick out something light, perhaps? It is a lot of thing to hurl at a lot of speed. Something brand new and futuristic to you, 1860s man?) Cross-reference if you think your walls are too thin now and forces upon exit will squash your space exploration tin can into a spheroid with some haphazard organics on the inside.
My point being: you land in the order of magnitude of Apollo handily by a couple of reasonable assumptions about the pragmatics of exploration and some physics the 19th century already has access to.
I should check if Verne could and did that, actually. And how. I can do some step-by-step calculations. That'd be fun. (Update to come. Sometime. When I have the time. Research might get delayed due to me not knowing French.)
_______
notes on the book as a physical object:
(2010 Yale University Press, Hardback ed.)
This is a glued spine hardcover, which means that the page block is pinned in-between the covers like a tortuted body to a rack, and made to conform the arcs of mechanical stress to the 90° degree angle of a linen-lookalike-clad scaffold cardboard, and it fights you to remain open, and goes ssssq c r e e eeeeak ck when you do.
The paper is acid-free, a promise of longevity made by a tree and then immediately silenced in the dark of the forest.
It rankles. This is elegantly formatted, an internally obviously well-considered object as a piece of design, courtesy of Sonia L. Shannon. That consideration stops off the edge of the page - is the heft of hardcovers, their aura of luxury, the justification of price tag writ in the literal taking-up-of-more-space-in-a-bookshop their potential as castanets in a pinch that tempting?
Should you be procuring one of these, go for the paperback.
November 8, 2022
القمر في الأساطير و التاريخ و اثره على النساء و كما هو واضح في العنوان جملة اثره على النساء خاطئة لا يوجد فصل في الكتاب تناول اثر القمر على النساء بل تطرقت الكاتبة إلى القصص و الخرافات عن تأثير القمر على الإنسان بشكل عام ذكور و إناث ، حسنا الكتاب يتطرق إلى موضوع القمر و تأثيره على البشر و تبدأ الكاتبة فصولها بفصل بدايات اهتمام العلماء بالقمر و الدراسات و الابحاث التي صدرت قبل اختراع التيليسكوب و بعد اكتشافه ثم تطرقت في فصل آخر إلى اهم الفرضيات و الاطروحات عن خلق القمر و نشاته و من اي مادة يتكون مرورا إلى اهم الروايات التي اهتمت بالقمر و بالحلم الكبير و المتمثل في الهبوط على سطح القمر ، الكتاب ممتع و فيه معلومات لم اكن اعرفها البعض مضحك و البعض الآخر غير قابل للتصديق المهم كانت رحلة شيقة و لكن يجب عدم تصديق كل ما ورد في الكتاب .
April 11, 2023
"يقال بأنه ناعم، شاحب حلو، مُخادع، غامض، رقيق وساكن. وبغض عن النظر عن درجة حرارة القمر الباردة فعلا إلا أنه يوصف أحيانا بأنه دافئ أو بارد وفقا للمشاعر التي يُثيرها في النفوس. وأحيانا يُربط بين القمر والحزن، ربما بسبب شحوب ضوئه، أو لأن بعض الناس يصبحون في أثناء الليل أكثر قابلية للحزن."
حاولت التخلص من ملحقات الحياة المعاصرة المتكدسة في أدراج وعيي متجاهلة تطورات القرن الواحد والعشرين والعودة إلى تواريخ متأخرة قبل الميلاد، الوقت الذي كانت فيه قلة المعرفة تُثري الخيال!
ماذا لو لم نكن الجيل الذي جاء بعد أبولو 11؟ هل كنا سننظر إلى القمر بذات اللهفة والإعجاب الذي كان ينظر فيه البشر من قبل الغزو التكنولوجي للفضاء وقبل اكتشاف الكهرباء؟.
ما زالت الليالي المُقمرة _التي يكون فيها القمر بدرا مُكتملا_ تكتسب في ذهني ذكريات سحيقة من الزمن المتكاثف داخل أعماق طفولتي، كان السير في الطرقات ليلا أمرًا مهيبا داخل الأرياف البعيد عن بهرجة المدن وإنارات الشوارع، فحين يغيب القمر _خلال مرحلة المحاق_ عن سماءنا المتشحة بالأسرار السوداء الغامضة، ستأكل الظلمة عيوننا ولن نبصر شيئا، ولكم كنت أخشى الظلام وأتخيل كافة الكائنات العجيبة التي تسترق السمع والنظر من سكان الفضاء وجوف الأرض والعالم الآخر، تنتظر لحظتها المفضلة لكي تنقضّ علينا وتغزونا، فنسرع إلى منازلنا نلتجئ إلى الضوء والدفء والأمان.
لا ليل في المدينة، ولا قمر!.
"أنت يا عيون الليل المُضيئة، لك جبهة ودودة..
أنت أيها القمر المكتسي باللون الأبيض، يا ذا الوجنة المُبتسمة
أنت يا من تؤرجح الشعلة الفضية."
يظن بلوتارخ أن "القمر مسكون بالبشر وأن أرواح موتى سكان الأرض ترحل لتسكن هناك". في وقت كان هذا الوجه البهيّ الذي يطل بأوقات معينة ويغيب أحيانا، حقلا فسيحا لأهل الخيال وكُتاب الروايات الفنتازية، وكونه بعيدا كل البعد يبقيه عصيا على الإدراك والإبصار ومرتعا خصبا للحكايات والأساطير والخرافات.
"ربما كان للقمر في وقت ما سيطرة على المخ، ولكنه فقدها منذ زمن."
في محاولات فهم طريقة سير الأمور، كان الإنسان يجهد نفسه في تفسير الأحداث وارتباطاتها وكانت أكثر علامة متغيرة تطل من السماء الملونة بأكثر درجات الأسود قتامة، القمر، في أطواره المختلفة طيلة الشهر، ارتبط بالزراعة والمرض والموت، والفرح والتعب والنوم، حتى أصبح الكهنة والمشعوذون يلوذون إلى أطواره لاستدعاء المكلومين والمرضى.
لقد كان القمر هو التلفاز الأول لعالم الإنسان، ما جعله نقطة مركزية تحدد طريقة تفكيرهم.
أتذكر وقت قراءتي كتاب الغيوم لريتشارد هامبلن، كيف رفعت رأسي ونظرت لأول مرة إلى ندف الجمال الأبيض في السماء. الآن أيضا، أرفع رأسي لأنظر إلى القمر بعين جديدة مُدركة.
أخشى أن تطال يد الإنسان سطح القمر وتبعثر رتابة الكون الطبيعي الذي نثق به ونعرفه منذ زمن. مثلما استطاعت أن تصنع غيوما صناعية يهطل منها مطر صناعي!.
حاولت التخلص من ملحقات الحياة المعاصرة المتكدسة في أدراج وعيي متجاهلة تطورات القرن الواحد والعشرين والعودة إلى تواريخ متأخرة قبل الميلاد، الوقت الذي كانت فيه قلة المعرفة تُثري الخيال!
ماذا لو لم نكن الجيل الذي جاء بعد أبولو 11؟ هل كنا سننظر إلى القمر بذات اللهفة والإعجاب الذي كان ينظر فيه البشر من قبل الغزو التكنولوجي للفضاء وقبل اكتشاف الكهرباء؟.
ما زالت الليالي المُقمرة _التي يكون فيها القمر بدرا مُكتملا_ تكتسب في ذهني ذكريات سحيقة من الزمن المتكاثف داخل أعماق طفولتي، كان السير في الطرقات ليلا أمرًا مهيبا داخل الأرياف البعيد عن بهرجة المدن وإنارات الشوارع، فحين يغيب القمر _خلال مرحلة المحاق_ عن سماءنا المتشحة بالأسرار السوداء الغامضة، ستأكل الظلمة عيوننا ولن نبصر شيئا، ولكم كنت أخشى الظلام وأتخيل كافة الكائنات العجيبة التي تسترق السمع والنظر من سكان الفضاء وجوف الأرض والعالم الآخر، تنتظر لحظتها المفضلة لكي تنقضّ علينا وتغزونا، فنسرع إلى منازلنا نلتجئ إلى الضوء والدفء والأمان.
لا ليل في المدينة، ولا قمر!.
"أنت يا عيون الليل المُضيئة، لك جبهة ودودة..
أنت أيها القمر المكتسي باللون الأبيض، يا ذا الوجنة المُبتسمة
أنت يا من تؤرجح الشعلة الفضية."
يظن بلوتارخ أن "القمر مسكون بالبشر وأن أرواح موتى سكان الأرض ترحل لتسكن هناك". في وقت كان هذا الوجه البهيّ الذي يطل بأوقات معينة ويغيب أحيانا، حقلا فسيحا لأهل الخيال وكُتاب الروايات الفنتازية، وكونه بعيدا كل البعد يبقيه عصيا على الإدراك والإبصار ومرتعا خصبا للحكايات والأساطير والخرافات.
"ربما كان للقمر في وقت ما سيطرة على المخ، ولكنه فقدها منذ زمن."
في محاولات فهم طريقة سير الأمور، كان الإنسان يجهد نفسه في تفسير الأحداث وارتباطاتها وكانت أكثر علامة متغيرة تطل من السماء الملونة بأكثر درجات الأسود قتامة، القمر، في أطواره المختلفة طيلة الشهر، ارتبط بالزراعة والمرض والموت، والفرح والتعب والنوم، حتى أصبح الكهنة والمشعوذون يلوذون إلى أطواره لاستدعاء المكلومين والمرضى.
لقد كان القمر هو التلفاز الأول لعالم الإنسان، ما جعله نقطة مركزية تحدد طريقة تفكيرهم.
أتذكر وقت قراءتي كتاب الغيوم لريتشارد هامبلن، كيف رفعت رأسي ونظرت لأول مرة إلى ندف الجمال الأبيض في السماء. الآن أيضا، أرفع رأسي لأنظر إلى القمر بعين جديدة مُدركة.
أخشى أن تطال يد الإنسان سطح القمر وتبعثر رتابة الكون الطبيعي الذي نثق به ونعرفه منذ زمن. مثلما استطاعت أن تصنع غيوما صناعية يهطل منها مطر صناعي!.
January 10, 2014
This strikes me as a rather peculiar book in everything from shape, which is taller and more narrow than most hardback books, to tone, which is a fairly awkward combination of cultural history with a dash of science. Sometimes the cultural history and science are even jumbled together in the same chapter (admittedly, that did turn out to be my favorite chapter). Fortunately, it's a short read and there are tons of neat illustrations, so the weirdness goes down easy enough.
All the usual topics - dare I call them the big three - are included 1) the moon is made of cheese (just kidding, that wasn't in there, but origin theories were) 2) the full moon causes crazy behavior in humans (sorry folks, no credible evidence shows any correlation let alone causation) 3) the moon landing was a hoax (lots of evidence about proving it wasn't). Lots of other topics were touched on too - if I were looking for suggested 19th century reading on the moon this would have been perfect - but since it's such a short book nothing was really investigated in depth. Except there was an entire chapter on Jules Vern. See? I told you it was peculiar.
All the usual topics - dare I call them the big three - are included 1) the moon is made of cheese (just kidding, that wasn't in there, but origin theories were) 2) the full moon causes crazy behavior in humans (sorry folks, no credible evidence shows any correlation let alone causation) 3) the moon landing was a hoax (lots of evidence about proving it wasn't). Lots of other topics were touched on too - if I were looking for suggested 19th century reading on the moon this would have been perfect - but since it's such a short book nothing was really investigated in depth. Except there was an entire chapter on Jules Vern. See? I told you it was peculiar.
January 13, 2014
How's this for damning with faint praise? Bernd Brunner's Moon, A Brief HIstory is a pleasantly boring read.
I see that at least one other reader review has beat me to the term paper comparison, but that is what comes to mind. I had the impression of Brunner really reading up on his topic, dutifully putting all his factoids onto 3 x 5 cards, organizing them into a logical sequence, then writing his book.
Not that that is such a bad thing. He has a lot of interesting information, he simply never pulls it together with any real style or particular wit. Some of it is new and interesting. Some of it is familiar -- it's surprising how much you learn on the science channel. Some of it just goes on too long, even for so brief a history.
The best thing about his book is its design and layout. It is a nifty 8 x 5 inch trim size, and the more than 100 black and white illustrations come from interesting sources and range from thumbnail to full-page images.
I see that at least one other reader review has beat me to the term paper comparison, but that is what comes to mind. I had the impression of Brunner really reading up on his topic, dutifully putting all his factoids onto 3 x 5 cards, organizing them into a logical sequence, then writing his book.
Not that that is such a bad thing. He has a lot of interesting information, he simply never pulls it together with any real style or particular wit. Some of it is new and interesting. Some of it is familiar -- it's surprising how much you learn on the science channel. Some of it just goes on too long, even for so brief a history.
The best thing about his book is its design and layout. It is a nifty 8 x 5 inch trim size, and the more than 100 black and white illustrations come from interesting sources and range from thumbnail to full-page images.
June 20, 2023
I have mixed feelings about this book. It's quite entertaining and it offers a good balance between facts and factoids, it skims the surface of both folklore and science, offering a glimpse of greater depths, and it arouses curiosity and reflects on the nature of the Moon and on our relation to Earth's satellite. However, I never was quite hooked as I expected by the book as a whole, but some individual chapters were actually exciting. Some chapters are rather too short, while others go on just a little too much. The order of the chapters itself seems rather random and some titles make it hard to know if one is about to read a science or a folklore-focused chapter. In that sense, it seems that it wants to be a book with something for everyone, but it never manages to find its own voice. Oddly enough, the bibliographical essay is perhaps the most interesting part of the book, as the author manages to make even the driest of his sources to sound worthwhile geting hold of. Finally, although this book was published in 2010, it's curious how dated its statements that interest in space travel would die sooner than later, given the renewed interest in the colonization of the Moon and Mars, in the wake of SpaceX, Blue Origin, and other companies' efforts.
July 2, 2023
Goodness me for a brief history this covers a lot of ground, maybe too much in the first couple of chapters there are a dizzying amount of names and dates thrown at the reader and thats unfortunate as it tends to make the narrative a tad dry.
When discussing literature, folklore and social aspects the text does come alive. I think each chapter could have been expanded into a book in its own right, but then it wouldn't be a brief history if it did. As a primer for further reading etc i think it does a pretty good job.
When discussing literature, folklore and social aspects the text does come alive. I think each chapter could have been expanded into a book in its own right, but then it wouldn't be a brief history if it did. As a primer for further reading etc i think it does a pretty good job.
March 11, 2023
punti interessanti sul tema luna, talvolta narrativa noiosa
February 25, 2011
This is an OK book - a quick read and some nice illustrations.
As for the text, the author introduces themes and then doesn't really develop them (though, to be fair, the subtitle is A Brief History), as the previous reviewer says, it is rather Eurocentric and seems to dwell inordinately on attitudes towards the moon from the 1600s onwards. Yes, there is mention of ancient moon-lore, but this is often from the perspective of more recent times.
Overall, it was interesting, but not as much so as it might have been.
As for the text, the author introduces themes and then doesn't really develop them (though, to be fair, the subtitle is A Brief History), as the previous reviewer says, it is rather Eurocentric and seems to dwell inordinately on attitudes towards the moon from the 1600s onwards. Yes, there is mention of ancient moon-lore, but this is often from the perspective of more recent times.
Overall, it was interesting, but not as much so as it might have been.
February 1, 2011
Extremely readable, this book suffers at the beginning from too many facts, and there is a sense of them just being included to show off how much the author knows. But once it gets going, the book really does give a sense of our relationship with the moon and the moon itself. It was a very quick read, and I'd recommend it from the library.
April 13, 2011
Bernd Brunner exhausted the moon references made by every culture, movie and writer. It was an example of a great project for a college student's final paper, but it lacked the control and flare of writing that captures your attention. The science information was interesting, but his looping of references and lack of development of any clear idea made it a tedious read.
Read
January 11, 2015A brisk, informative book which touches on science, history, mythology, and cultural meaning of our planet's satellite. It is beautifully illustrated with engravings and historical maps and other images. The material and voice are accessible and chock-full of information without ever being overwhelming for the lay reader. Recommended.
Want to read
December 24, 2016COCC QB581 .B78 2010
April 21, 2011
An enjoyable popular history of the moon.
June 29, 2013
ignore the hyper critics ... tons of moon fun facts in 27 minutes ... do it
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