A new history of the Apollo moon landings

The article attempts to convey a sense of how Americans felt about the Apollo program as it happened - deeply ambivalent.

Looking back, we (especially, we, the arch-geek community on HN) see heroic levels of optimism and success, progress writ large. But in the late '60s and early '70s, just as the Apollo program was hitting its stride, the American public had lost faith in science and technology and experts as providers of progress; many were turning to evangelical churches, polarized political positions, etc.

Studying history as "just the facts" is trite and tedious. Finding good history that conveys that sense of culture and perception as it was as those facts occurred is difficult but ultimately very rewarding.

Lesson for the future? Not sure. That's not as easy as reading the lesson of the past.