Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Berkeley architecture professor de Monchaux's thorough and artful history of the American spacesuit takes readers at a leisurely pace through the past, from the first air travel (via balloon) through fashions of the mid-20th century and manned missions into outer space. De Monchaux dissects the many materials and manufacturing processes involved in construction of the precision-stitched latex spacesuit, the "simultaneous flexibility and precision" of which has kept it popular, and the AX-2, a hard suit "container, not clothing." De Monchaux situates readers in the culture of the time, with discussions of the stewardess as icon (the astronaut's "airborne counterpart"), JFK's medical treatments, and IBM vs. DEC (defunct by 1998) computers that paint a full backstory of every element, from "a brief history of rubber" and its pre-spacesuit application to girdles to fascinating details of obtaining transmissions from space, creating a wholly absorbing capsule of our history. "[I]n `suiting' man to an environment defined by its hostility to him, the spacesuit itself would come to play a central role in discussions of man both made and remade, earthly and, it almost seemed, divine." Photos. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
De Monchaux (architecture & urban design, Univ. of California, Berkeley) examines the history and semiotics of the A7L Apollo spacesuit in 21 chapters, corresponding to the suit's 21 layers. He contrasts the feminine, soft, flexible, tailored A7L, designed by an organizationally fluid company (one derived from the bra and girdle manufacturer Playtex), with its unsuccessful competitors-masculine, hard-shelled, rigid spacesuits produced by less nimbly structured contractors. The book's layer/chapter arrangement feels contrived at times; some chapters could easily be combined, others stray so far off-topic that the author labors to include some reference to spacesuits. Overall, however, de Monchaux draws intriguing parallels between the fashion industry and the U.S. space exploration program. Both, he argues, are highly image conscious and owe their successes to collaborative narratives constructed by designers and inventors, the media, and the public. VERDICT While not a light read, this book should interest fashion and science historians. For readers with a scientific bent, it supplements more -traditional, linear, technically detailed histories such as Lillian D. Kozloski's U.S. Space Gear: Outfitting the Astronaut.-Nancy R. Curtis, Univ. of Maine Lib., Orono (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
