Experiencing God in Late-Medieval and Early-Modern England

Abstract

ately is the significance of the account Burgess has given? Additionally, various sentences or claims throughout the work lack substance and deserve more explanation. For instance, in Chapter 1, Burgess claims that early Soviet cosmonauts “were born into a life of seclusion and deprivation on the back streets of Moscow, unloved and passing each wretched day scrounging for food and finding shelter where they could” without naming any such cosmonauts or explaining the context of Soviet society (16). While certainly the Soviet Union during the Stalinist era was generally still impoverished, to suggest individuals were “unloved” is hyperbolic and unproven. Burgess seems to assume the reader is familiar with the Soviet Union and its society when likely many readers today would know little about it. The research and sourcing used for this piece does not appear too extensive with the book reliant mostly on other secondary books, including Burgess’s other works, and a handful of websites, such as Britannica.com, the BBC, and russianspaceweb.com. Thus, the facts in the book are almost entirely derived from other published accounts. Soviets in Space does include an appendix, but it lists only sixteen books and is not an exhaustive selection of works on the subject. Absent are works by MIT historian Slava Gerovitch, who has published numerous works on the Soviet program, or NASA historian Roger Launius, who had written accounts of both sides of the space race. Therefore, Soviets in Space is not a great initial resource for students or researchers to find more material on the subject. Overall, Burgess’s exposition on Russia’s space program is a factual, terse, and basic account which does not provide historians with anything new or insightful. The tables included throughout the chapters help organize the space missions for those seeking quick access to the facts. The book’s audience lies with popular readers with an interest in the space race and spaceflights and more particularly the cosmonauts and their individual experiences aboard Soviet or Russian craft.