posted 11-20-2020 04:07 PM            

As an overview of a fascinating career, this book concisely shows how, despite technological leaps such as the space race, human character is what will always fascinate us most. We learn a lot about what Glenn did, but we never learn why he did those things or who he was, which would be key to what the author promised to explore. Glenn was a complex man from a complex age, far deeper and more interesting than this book suggests.

posted 11-20-2020 04:35 PM               

On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became a national star. That morning at Cape Canaveral, the small-town boy from Ohio took his place atop a rocket and soared into space.

He became celebrated in all corners of the world as not just the first American to orbit the Earth, but as the first space traveler to take the human race with him. Refusing to let that dramatic day define his life, he went on to become a four-term US senator — and returned to space at the age of seventy-seven. The Last American Hero is a stunning examination of the layers that formed the man: a hero of the Cold War, a two-time astronaut, a veteran senator, a devoted husband and father, and much more. At a time when an increasingly cynical world needs heroes, John Glenn's aura burns brightly in American memory.

• Hardcover: 368 pages
  
• Chicago Review Press (November 10, 2020)
  
• ISBN-10: 1641602139
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1641602136

posted 12-31-2020 07:50 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by fredtrav:
I must say I do not like the title. While certainly a hero, he is not the "last" American hero.

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I believe the title is a reference to a quote I once heard calling John Glenn America's "last national hero."

I personally have mixed feelings about the late Senator, as I've never quite been able to separate his political career from his unquestionably courageous and honorable service as a Marine and an astronaut. But that's not really an appropriate discussion for these forums.

I do think the "last national hero" point is a fair one...the America that sent Glenn into space in 1962 was a different nation than the one which sent its citizens to the Moon not even a decade later. I believe that's the intended point of the title.