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There's a major wrinkle missing: the war between the two chief designers of the soviet space program that torpedoed all possibility of a soviet moon success.

Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko had a long-standing and increasingly vitriolic disagreement over which propellants the Soviet space program should be using. Korolev was in favor of cryogenic propellants—liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (or RP1 + LOX, too). Glushko, on the other hand, favored storable hypergols instead of cryogens.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages; cryogens need to be kept very cold (or for LH2, very very cold) and because of that, fueling procedures for cryogen-powered rockets are very complex and involve a lot of conditioning and chill-down, and extra mechanisms for recapturing boil-off. Further, rockets can't be stored with fuel in them (important for ICBMs), and generally have to be de-tanked immediately if a launch is scrubbed.

Hypergols, on the other hand, are generally fine at room temperature and you can leave hypergolic-powered rockets fueled up and ready to go for extended periods without worrying about the fuel boiling away. However, hypergolic fuels tend to be murderously, hideously toxic. This means that not only are your pad workers in danger whenever they work with fuel—it means that if your rocket crashes or blows up, it spews out a horrifyingly toxic death-cloud.

The N1 was Korolev's baby. Originally intended to be used to reach Mars (or Venus, depending on who you ask), it was retasked by the Politburo and the N1-L3 plan was quickly beaten into shape. By that point in their careers, Glushko and Korolev were no longer speaking to each other; Korolev was in very poor health and died during an operation in 1965. The N1 eventually flew four times, but all four flights ended in various failures (one of the rockets exploded with the equivalent of about 1kt of TNT, making it one of the largest human-created non-nuclear explosions ever recorded). Glushko was eventually installed as the chief designer of the entire program and canceled the N1. His decision was made at least partially to spite Korolev's memory, as the N1 was Korolev's rocket.

The truly disappointing thing here is that it's very likely the N1's fifth flight, had it had one, would have been successful. However, it was 1972 at that point and the Moon wasn't really seen as a worthwhile destination for the Soviet space program anymore. Without a destination, the N1 was just a ludicrously expensive and overpowered rocket with no mission.

A fascinating historical footnote is how the Soviet space program in general, and their lunar program specifically, operated much more like how one might expect a US program to operate—numerous design bureaus were simultaneously executing several different plans at the same time, with the idea that the most successful would be expanded upon to become the "official" program. Conversely, the US used a much more Soviet-style "centrally planned" approach, allowing NASA to coordinate and control all aspects of the program through its army of contractors.

If you want to read about the Soviet space program, there are some great books available. The first—and the one I'd recommend most—is a two-volume work by Dr. Asif Siddiqi, who is the preeminent living expert on the Soviet's aborted lunar program. Part one is here, and part two is here. You can also get a single combined PDF of the whole thing (for free!) here.

The other work is Boris Chertok's Ракеты и люди ("Rakety i lyudi," or "Rockets and People") which you can get for free from NASA here, split into four volumes. Chertok was an engineer who worked in the Soviet aerospace industry and who was part of the Space Race from that side of the Iron Curtain; his first-hand experience with the Soviet side of the race makes for an incredibly illuminating read.

do you mean english history books ? that's because ,after the ww2 and the anti italian propaganda , few writers made an effort to tell the truth and go against the stigma towards italian soldiers , they just presented the victory as a joint french-england-usa effort. Italian soldiers also fought in france but i bet very few people knows that.


"Mon Général, Au moment où vous allez retourner en Italie, je tiens à vous exprimer la satisfaction que j’ai éprouvé à avoir sous mes ordres le II C.A. Italien. Quand, en avril 1918, le II C.A. arriva en France, sa réputation de vaillance était déjà consacrée par tes noms glorieux de Plava, Monte Cucco, Vodice, Monte Santo, Bainsizza, Montello. Je savais que pouvais beaucoup demander à de pareilles troupes. Elles furent en effet de celles qui, le 15 juillet, contribuèrent à repousser les assaut furieux de l’ennemi.Elles furent ensuite appelées à reprendre les crêtes fameuses du Chemin des Dames et participèrent ardemment avec les troupes française à la poursuite qui chassa l’ennemi hors de France. Au nom de l’Armée Française je tes remercie. Je salue vos glorieux drapeaux. Je salue aussi vos héros tombés au champ d’honneur. La France honorera d’un mène culte tous ceux qui sont tombés sur son sol pour la plus noble des causes. L’Italie peut être fière du Général Albricci et des troupes qui, sous ses ordres, ont combattu victorieusement sur le sol de la France.
Signé: PETAIN"


update: it seems new books have been published:
http://www.amazon.it/White-War-Death-Italian-1915-1919/dp/0571223346/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451783758&sr=8-1&keywords=white+war
http://www.amazon.it/Isonzo-Forgotten-Sacrifice-Great-War/dp/0275972046/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1451784112&sr=8-2&keywords=isonzo+battle

the book

this is the book. totally awesome and worth picking up. goes into some of the history of these goliaths . beautiful to say the least.

> learning anything I could about the Donner party

Last podcast on the Left do a great 3 parter about the Donner party, -

https://soundcloud.com/lastpodcastontheleft/episode-331-the-donner-party

And hype up "The" book on the Donner party -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indifferent-Stars-Above-Harrowing-Donner-ebook/dp/B0026SCNDQ

The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown

If you happen to be Dutch, you can probably buy it here. It's made by two Dutch artists, but apparently was also translated to English under the name "Gnomes", which you can find here . Hopefully this is what you were looking for! I loved those books as a kid, and I still browse them sometimes.

Scotty?

Johnson knew it was a scam and still was friends with Scotty, Johnson willfully built the castle because he fell in love with the area and the climate and lifestyle helped his health.

http://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/historyculture/death-valley-scotty.htm

Also, with the huge size of the park and the drastic geological differences that occur within the boundaries, there are many different elements present.

Here are some good books about the geology of the area/history and hiking.

http://www.amazon.com/Geology-Underfoot-Death-Valley-Owens/dp/0878423621

http://www.amazon.com/Hiking-Death-Valley-Natural-Wonders/dp/0965917800/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427481871&sr=1-1&keywords=hiking+death+valley

http://www.amazon.com/Important-California-history-autobiography-detailing-ebook/dp/B00AQN23CY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427481886&sr=1-1&keywords=death+valley+in+49

You might enjoy this book called "50 Photo Projects" by Lee Frost. It's an old standby for me. I flip through it when I'm in a rut, but it's also great for introducing new perspectives, people wanting to dig deeper into their photography, etc.

Very cool to see some Union County, New Mexico on reddit. Loved the Grenville shots as well. You should check out the book Max Evans' Hi Lo Country: Under the One-Eyed Sky

There's a reqlly good book called A Carpenter's Life Told by Houses, Larry Haun

If your into house histories, and yes, the does talk about Sears houses, this is a great book. Easy to read also.

The book on Fordlandia is brilliant and well worth reading. Its an amazing experiment even if it did fail.

http://www.amazon.com/Fordlandia-Henry-Fords-Forgotten-Jungle/dp/0312429622

> Big Charity

Here you go - Prime Link checking it out now.

Thanks for the heads up guys.

Funny you should ask!

No, I am NOT BB trying to push book sales:

http://www.amazon.com/At-Home-Short-History-Private/dp/0767919394


A UK home. FULL of amazing facts. Not his best I think, but still a great read.

The US used to have forests that went on for thousands of miles.


Since 1600, 90% of the virgin forests that once covered much of the lower 48 states have been cleared away. Most of the remaining old-growth forests in the lower 48 states and Alaska are on public lands. In the Pacific Northwest about 80% of this forestland is slated for logging.


http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html

Just wait until you find out the date of the Irish war of independence :)

If you would like to read a bit on Irish history this book A history of Ireland in 250 episodes is quite good as an overview!

If you look closely it's actually connected to a heating coil. Looks like you place it directly in the mug like this.

EDIT: From Amazon.

> That aside, it's also possible they were already planning on building this and just accelerated the plans

that's exactly what they did. the documentary covers how it seemed some shadiness was going on with why the hospital wasn't immediately reopened when it could have been. it's about an hour long if you have the time to watch it.