THE MOON a biography

The moon has fascinated humans since the earliest times. In 'The Moon: A biography' David Whitehouse traces our relationship with this intruiging object. He begins by looking at the features on the moon as seen through a telescope during its cycle. He then goes on to consider its influence upon our early mythologies and upon our view of our place in the universe. Whitehouse shows how the invention of the telescope had a profound affect on our relationship with the moon, and this leads up to the space age, where he includes some little known details of the race to land a man on the moon.

One might expect a biography of something to tell us how it has spent most of its life, which in this case means selenology. Although there is one chapter on the formation of the moon, there isn't much on its subsequent development, and if that's what you're after then I would advise you to look elsewhere. No, this book is principally about our relationship with the moon. At the end of the book Whitehouse looks at the possibilites for human habitation on the moon and gives a persuasive argument of why we should go back.