In 1944, Bertie Bowman–a poor, impressionablethirteen-year-old–heard South Carolina senator Burnet Maybankdeclare: “If you all ever get up to Washington, D.C., drop by andsee me!” Bertie took those words to heart, and when he arrived inWashington, Senator Maybank, surprisingly true to his word, saw toit that the young runaway had a place to stay and a steadyincome–earned by sweeping the Capitol steps for two dollars a week.Bowman would rise to become hearing coordinator for the SenateForeign Relations Committee in the U.S. Capitol–and this is hisremarkable story. For sixty years, Bertie Bowman stood at the epicenter of change andwitnessed history in the making, observing firsthand theclandestine backroom deals made in the name of democracy. Throughit all, he lived by these guiding principles: Work hard. Be true toyourself. Take responsibility. Have a positive outlook. Expect thebest from people. As Bowman recounts his extraordinary life, healso shares the lessons and values that have served him
Michael J. Neufeld, curator and space historian at theSmithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, delivers a brilliantlynuanced biography of Wernher von Braun. Chief rocket engineer of the Third Reich and one of the fathersof the U.S. space program, Wernher von Braun is a source ofconsistent fascination. Glorified as a visionary and vilified as awar criminal, he was a man of profound moral complexities, whoseintelligence and charisma were coupled with an enormous and, somewould say, blinding ambition. Based on new sources, Neufeld'sbiography delivers a meticulously researched and authoritativeportrait of the creator of the V-2 rocket and his times, detailinghow he was a man caught between morality and progress, between hisdreams of the heavens and the earthbound realities of his life.
