Category: Nonfiction
Reviewed by: Douglas G. Adler
Title: Earthrise: The Story of the Photograph that Changed the Way We See Our Planet
Author: Leonard Marcus
Format: Hardcover/Kindle
Pages: 160
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Date: March 2024
Retail price: $21.99/$11.99
ISBN: 978-0374392116
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Many histories of the early space program exist. NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Programs have been written about almost to the point of exhaustion. A quick perusal of the shelf at your local bookstore or public library will usually turn up half a dozen or more volumes that recap the entire early space program, usually culminating in Apollo 11’s triumphant Moon landing in July, 1969.
The challenge, or dare I say the trick, to such histories is uncovering something other authors have neglected in their works, or covering the material in a new way to make it interesting and/or accessible to modern readers.
In Earthrise: The Story of the Photograph That Changed the Way We See Our Planet, author Leonard Marcus tries his hand at telling the story of the Space Race. The title is, to some extent, a misnomer. Most readers with knowledge of this era would assume that this book is about the flight of Apollo 8. On that mission, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders made a breathtaking circumlunar flight (without a lunar module, so there was no possibility of landing) and captured the famous “Earthrise” photo that both captivated the world and graces the cover of this book. Such assumptions would be wrong, as this work is essentially another history of the space race, and one that essentially stops with the flight of Apollo 8. The story of Apollo 8, and how the Earthrise photo was obtained, occupies the second half of the book. The first half recapitulates the inception of the space race starting with the USSR’s launch of Sputnik in 1957 as well as the early U.S. and Soviet space programs.
The writing itself is workmanlike and Marcus does a decent job of telling the tale. The main issue is that, for all intents and purposes, there is nothing new here. The story of Apollo 8 and the Earthrise photo has been the subject of many books. To name a few, Jeffrey Kluger’s Apollo 8, Robert Kurson’s Rocket Men, Robert Zimmerman’s Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, and Martin Sandler’s Apollo 8: The Mission that Changed Everything, all cover the exact same events, and largely in similar manners. Add to this the fact that the general histories of Apollo, of which there are too many to list, all devote significant space to Apollo 8. Most of the photos in the book are familiar from other works as well.
None of this is an indictment of Leonard’s work, but it does serve as fair notice to readers that this is very well-worn ground. The book is well illustrated, and some of the text focuses on aspects of the mission such as the cameras used by the Apollo 8 crew, the rise in popularity of the Earthrise photo, and other topics. There is a whole section on the Apollo sextant, used by the crew to ensure proper spacecraft orientation, but even this has been written about before (including, in full disclosure, an article on the exact same topic that I once wrote).
Of note, Amazon.com notes that this book is intended for children aged 10-14, but it is not written in a tone that most children’s books are written. The book is acceptable for both children and adults to read.
Overall, this is a well-meaning book that may struggle to find an audience in the current market. Most 10-year-olds in 2025 are not fascinated by the events of Apollo 8, and adults with an interest in the period have likely already read one (or more) of the existing books on this topic.
© 2025 Douglas G. Adler
