You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
thepastelnerd 's review for:
This is a quite lengthy review because I wrote it for a history class. To see the brief version, check out my post on Instagram @thepastelnerd.
Rise of the Rocket Girls by Erin Holt–Review by Anna Taylor
I did not expect to love Rise of the Rocket Girls as much as I have. The book covers a group often overlooked in the history of space exploration, even in publications by NASA: the female computers who crafted every calculation that went into many of the early spacecraft launches. I knew that, like in every scientific field, women struggled to be seen as equals to men in space exploration, as evidenced by the fact that we have yet to put a woman on the moon. I also had a general knowledge about some of the big events in space exploration–the 1969 moon landing, the more recent Mars rovers (I watched the livestream of the Perseverance landing), Voyager 2 leaving the solar system–but knew very little about the work that goes into preparing for these momentous achievements.
As someone who, like many others, is fascinated by space, this is what spurred me to choose a book about space exploration for review in my US history class. I wanted to know what it took to get us as far in space as we've been able to travel. It’s only been about a century since the Wright Brothers invented the airplane, so the fact that we now have a spacecraft beyond the boundary of our solar system just a mere century later astounds me. I wanted to find out how this is all possible. I also wanted to explore the stories of some of the countless women who have contributed to history but aren’t acknowledged in most history textbooks. Rise of the Rocket Girls expertly met both of my objectives.
I was particularly interested to learn that this book focuses almost exclusively on the history of women computers at the Jet Propulsion Institute (JPL), which preexisted NASA but became part of it after the latter’s founding. Starting all the way from JPL’s sole female employee and inaugural human computer, Barbara “Barby '' Canright, who wrote the calculations for the world’s first experiments in rocket science, the book tells of each major human computer who joined her amazing group. I’m not personally very interested in math or science; while I find them essential and interesting, I do not personally wish to study them in great detail myself. That didn’t prevent me from learning the absolutely vital role these human computers have provided in every single launch contributed by JPL.
I didn’t realize just how difficult and delicate and precise each calculation that goes into a space launch has to be, and I didn’t realize the astonishing number of complex calculations that goes into every part of the development and launch of a spacecraft. The descriptions about each project in Rise of the Rocket Girls taught me to appreciate mathematics in a way I never have before, because I can’t ignore that space exploration would not be possible without the work of these amazing women.. They laid the foundation for so many of the scientific discoveries we often take for granted today.
Speaking of which, I also enjoyed the book’s description of how advancements in technology aided and improved the eponymous Rocket Girl’s calculations over time. I know even less about computer science than I did about space exploration, so the book’s overview of the development of modern technology was extremely helpful, especially in teaching me how inventions that the women computers didn’t trust at first, like the huge and clunky and problematic IBMs, progressed until they were able to help the women calculate so much faster than they were able to do on their own. I feel like it’s easy to think that space exploration would not be possible without advanced technology, yet these human computers fulfilled that advanced role long before what we know today as an electronic computer came around. Humanity wouldn’t have accomplished nearly as much as we have in space without the work of these women.
I really appreciated the book’s discussion of not only the women's many successes but also of their mistakes, failures, disappointments, and failed missions. Like the efforts of everyone else at NASA and other space agencies, the human computers have experienced far more setbacks than successes. These are so numerous that only the most costly or tragic disasters, like the Challenger disaster, are covered in textbooks or summaries of history. Rise of the Rocket Girls has a leg up compared to these other books by covering these numerous failures in detail. Doing so humanizes the real-life individuals the book covers, helping readers like me understand the complexities of their work and the extraordinary strength of character each person possessed to be able to dust themselves off and try again no matter how often they made disastrous mistakes. This is more inspiring than any of their successes.
Even though I had a very broad overview of when and what the computers were able to successfully achieve, I thankfully knew little enough that the book surprised me over and over again. There is no need for fiction in a book that so beautifully captures the real-life tension of a spacecraft launch, the split-second decisions and calculations the team had to make to salvage a malfunctioning spacecraft, and the desperation to succeed after failure after failure threatened the existence of their jobs and of NASA itself. Who needs fiction when the paths human computers have traveled are harrowing enough!? I was so drawn into the book that I celebrated every success and mourned every failure like I was in the launch room with those men and women.
Outside of their work, the book features many moments of each woman’s personal life–their hard decisions regarding marriage, children, and moving house. In contrast, a lot of feminist histories seem to emphasize a woman’s career and industry successes because those are the parts of her life most often ignored by history. Don’t get me wrong, this is absolutely right to do, especially when a woman is seen as only capable in home life. But narrowing this focus sometimes results in the book ignoring or overlooking the achievements of these “career women” in their personal lives. Learning about the Rocket Girl’s hard work to find true love, raise their children, and bolster their own self worth does not retract from my recognition of their professional success at all. Rather, it helped me gain even more appreciation for how accomplished and amazing each of these women are, because they achieved so much in their personal lives in spite of work frustrations, and achieved so much at work in spite of personal troubles. Focusing on multiple facets of these women's lives helps overturn the stereotype that a woman can’t have a satisfying career AND a happy marriage AND happy well-adjusted children. The Rocket Girls did it all, and they did it well.
A specific area where focusing on their personal lives helped me see the bigger picture was many of the computer’s relationships with pregnancy. The early human computers at JPL were all female for decades. Yet, despite their vital role in each program, they still battled the misogyny and discrimination commonplace in every workplace at the time. So many of the computers, including Barby Canright, had to leave work just because they became pregnant, because there was no such thing as maternity leave, and it was still commonly considered odd for a married woman to work when she had children at home. The decisions of some of the computers, such as Helen Choi and Barbara Paulson, to return to work after having children was groundbreaking and set the stage for a much fairer treatment of women at JPL that continues today.
Another fantastic emphasis in the book is the friendship between the female computers. I enjoyed reading about their love for each other, their deep camaraderie that went beyond the workplace, and their passion for teaching the next generation of computers. Macie Roberts, long-time head of the department, did so much work to ensure that the next generation of women at JPL stayed together and helped each other advance their careers, and that developed a supportive bond that has endured decades past their respective retirements. (Holt’s description of the reunion JPL hosted for the women computers was especially endearing, since time and distance have evidently done nothing to weaken their bond). This sisterhood inspires me to work harder to develop lasting friendships in my own academic journey and future career.
Speaking of the computer culture at JPL, I would have liked more information on how it persists or has changed in the present day. Now with everyone properly recognized as engineers and programmers, is the group still made up of all women or mostly women? How are they inspired by their workplace’s history, by their predecessors? How have the traditions set in place in previous decades affected how the institution functions today? Is there still such a strong feeling of friendship in the workplace? The book is a bit rushed in covering the most recent decades, but I am not sure if this is because the initial role of the human computer has faded away due to changing times and technology, or if it’s because the author just presumes the reader had present information more easily accessible. I would like a good resource to learn more about women’s current contributions at JPL.
In addition to this, I would have liked more information on how women have contributed to space exploration in other areas of NASA outside of JPL. I was surprised to find so little information on individuals like Sally Ride, who is quoted in the beginning of the book, and on other women who worked in other divisions of JPL or NASA. I feel like the book’s focusing almost solely on the history of JPL as opposed to NASA overall results in it overlooking many women’s accomplishments in space exploration that equal those discussed at length in the book. I would have also liked more information on the advancements of space exploration in general outside of the specific projects the computers worked on. It was surprising to see the book gloss over the 1969 moon landing and other important events. I understand that such manned projects were not ones the human computers often worked on, but still, it would have been exciting to learn more about how women have contributed to manned missions as well. To satisfy my curiosity, I might pick up other books such as Hidden Figures in the future. While Rise of the Rocket Girls is an excellent book on the history of women in space exploration and engineering, it is definitely not the only one out there.
Next, there are numerous photos included in the book of the women computers, the rockets and other spacecraft they helped develop, and various locations and events at JPL. I loved looking at every single picture. They made the story come to life, and helped me remember that I was reading about events that actually happened thanks to actual people. My one critique is that the majority of the pictures are tacked on to the end of the book, at least in the ebook version I read. I would have found it helpful if they were more dispersed throughout the book, so that I saw them when I was actually reading about what each photo depicted.
I also have to take a moment to praise the exceedingly thorough research Holt poured into this book. She based much of what she wrote on in-person interviews, and accurately acknowledges that without the firsthand accounts of many of the women she writes about, the book would never exist. The inclusion of so many firsthand accounts and stories is what makes this book feel so real and intimate, what makes it far surpass the overview a textbook would provide, and what makes the stories feel so real, because they’re told through the words of those who actually experienced those moments. Holt fact-checked and provided a citation for every single bit of information. This made the book so much easier to read, because there was no opportunity to get distracted by confusing or inaccurate writing.
Like I mentioned in my previous review of David McCullough’s 1776, one of the reasons I enjoyed Rise of the Rocket Girls so much more than a typical history book was its use of a narrative format. By writing the history in creative nonfiction, Holt easily draws me into the stories. I found myself frustrated whenever I had to stop reading to attend to something else because I was so excited to find out what happened next. That is a rare feeling for me when I read nonfiction, so it was a pleasant surprise.
In conclusion, I highly recommend Rise of the Rocket Girls for anybody interested in the history of space exploration, engineering, computer technology, women in STEAM, and women in the American workforce. Even though my life is very different from the human computers at JPL, their hard work and perseverance is truly inspiring, and I am grateful Holt has told their stories.
Rise of the Rocket Girls by Erin Holt–Review by Anna Taylor
I did not expect to love Rise of the Rocket Girls as much as I have. The book covers a group often overlooked in the history of space exploration, even in publications by NASA: the female computers who crafted every calculation that went into many of the early spacecraft launches. I knew that, like in every scientific field, women struggled to be seen as equals to men in space exploration, as evidenced by the fact that we have yet to put a woman on the moon. I also had a general knowledge about some of the big events in space exploration–the 1969 moon landing, the more recent Mars rovers (I watched the livestream of the Perseverance landing), Voyager 2 leaving the solar system–but knew very little about the work that goes into preparing for these momentous achievements.
As someone who, like many others, is fascinated by space, this is what spurred me to choose a book about space exploration for review in my US history class. I wanted to know what it took to get us as far in space as we've been able to travel. It’s only been about a century since the Wright Brothers invented the airplane, so the fact that we now have a spacecraft beyond the boundary of our solar system just a mere century later astounds me. I wanted to find out how this is all possible. I also wanted to explore the stories of some of the countless women who have contributed to history but aren’t acknowledged in most history textbooks. Rise of the Rocket Girls expertly met both of my objectives.
I was particularly interested to learn that this book focuses almost exclusively on the history of women computers at the Jet Propulsion Institute (JPL), which preexisted NASA but became part of it after the latter’s founding. Starting all the way from JPL’s sole female employee and inaugural human computer, Barbara “Barby '' Canright, who wrote the calculations for the world’s first experiments in rocket science, the book tells of each major human computer who joined her amazing group. I’m not personally very interested in math or science; while I find them essential and interesting, I do not personally wish to study them in great detail myself. That didn’t prevent me from learning the absolutely vital role these human computers have provided in every single launch contributed by JPL.
I didn’t realize just how difficult and delicate and precise each calculation that goes into a space launch has to be, and I didn’t realize the astonishing number of complex calculations that goes into every part of the development and launch of a spacecraft. The descriptions about each project in Rise of the Rocket Girls taught me to appreciate mathematics in a way I never have before, because I can’t ignore that space exploration would not be possible without the work of these amazing women.. They laid the foundation for so many of the scientific discoveries we often take for granted today.
Speaking of which, I also enjoyed the book’s description of how advancements in technology aided and improved the eponymous Rocket Girl’s calculations over time. I know even less about computer science than I did about space exploration, so the book’s overview of the development of modern technology was extremely helpful, especially in teaching me how inventions that the women computers didn’t trust at first, like the huge and clunky and problematic IBMs, progressed until they were able to help the women calculate so much faster than they were able to do on their own. I feel like it’s easy to think that space exploration would not be possible without advanced technology, yet these human computers fulfilled that advanced role long before what we know today as an electronic computer came around. Humanity wouldn’t have accomplished nearly as much as we have in space without the work of these women.
I really appreciated the book’s discussion of not only the women's many successes but also of their mistakes, failures, disappointments, and failed missions. Like the efforts of everyone else at NASA and other space agencies, the human computers have experienced far more setbacks than successes. These are so numerous that only the most costly or tragic disasters, like the Challenger disaster, are covered in textbooks or summaries of history. Rise of the Rocket Girls has a leg up compared to these other books by covering these numerous failures in detail. Doing so humanizes the real-life individuals the book covers, helping readers like me understand the complexities of their work and the extraordinary strength of character each person possessed to be able to dust themselves off and try again no matter how often they made disastrous mistakes. This is more inspiring than any of their successes.
Even though I had a very broad overview of when and what the computers were able to successfully achieve, I thankfully knew little enough that the book surprised me over and over again. There is no need for fiction in a book that so beautifully captures the real-life tension of a spacecraft launch, the split-second decisions and calculations the team had to make to salvage a malfunctioning spacecraft, and the desperation to succeed after failure after failure threatened the existence of their jobs and of NASA itself. Who needs fiction when the paths human computers have traveled are harrowing enough!? I was so drawn into the book that I celebrated every success and mourned every failure like I was in the launch room with those men and women.
Outside of their work, the book features many moments of each woman’s personal life–their hard decisions regarding marriage, children, and moving house. In contrast, a lot of feminist histories seem to emphasize a woman’s career and industry successes because those are the parts of her life most often ignored by history. Don’t get me wrong, this is absolutely right to do, especially when a woman is seen as only capable in home life. But narrowing this focus sometimes results in the book ignoring or overlooking the achievements of these “career women” in their personal lives. Learning about the Rocket Girl’s hard work to find true love, raise their children, and bolster their own self worth does not retract from my recognition of their professional success at all. Rather, it helped me gain even more appreciation for how accomplished and amazing each of these women are, because they achieved so much in their personal lives in spite of work frustrations, and achieved so much at work in spite of personal troubles. Focusing on multiple facets of these women's lives helps overturn the stereotype that a woman can’t have a satisfying career AND a happy marriage AND happy well-adjusted children. The Rocket Girls did it all, and they did it well.
A specific area where focusing on their personal lives helped me see the bigger picture was many of the computer’s relationships with pregnancy. The early human computers at JPL were all female for decades. Yet, despite their vital role in each program, they still battled the misogyny and discrimination commonplace in every workplace at the time. So many of the computers, including Barby Canright, had to leave work just because they became pregnant, because there was no such thing as maternity leave, and it was still commonly considered odd for a married woman to work when she had children at home. The decisions of some of the computers, such as Helen Choi and Barbara Paulson, to return to work after having children was groundbreaking and set the stage for a much fairer treatment of women at JPL that continues today.
Another fantastic emphasis in the book is the friendship between the female computers. I enjoyed reading about their love for each other, their deep camaraderie that went beyond the workplace, and their passion for teaching the next generation of computers. Macie Roberts, long-time head of the department, did so much work to ensure that the next generation of women at JPL stayed together and helped each other advance their careers, and that developed a supportive bond that has endured decades past their respective retirements. (Holt’s description of the reunion JPL hosted for the women computers was especially endearing, since time and distance have evidently done nothing to weaken their bond). This sisterhood inspires me to work harder to develop lasting friendships in my own academic journey and future career.
Speaking of the computer culture at JPL, I would have liked more information on how it persists or has changed in the present day. Now with everyone properly recognized as engineers and programmers, is the group still made up of all women or mostly women? How are they inspired by their workplace’s history, by their predecessors? How have the traditions set in place in previous decades affected how the institution functions today? Is there still such a strong feeling of friendship in the workplace? The book is a bit rushed in covering the most recent decades, but I am not sure if this is because the initial role of the human computer has faded away due to changing times and technology, or if it’s because the author just presumes the reader had present information more easily accessible. I would like a good resource to learn more about women’s current contributions at JPL.
In addition to this, I would have liked more information on how women have contributed to space exploration in other areas of NASA outside of JPL. I was surprised to find so little information on individuals like Sally Ride, who is quoted in the beginning of the book, and on other women who worked in other divisions of JPL or NASA. I feel like the book’s focusing almost solely on the history of JPL as opposed to NASA overall results in it overlooking many women’s accomplishments in space exploration that equal those discussed at length in the book. I would have also liked more information on the advancements of space exploration in general outside of the specific projects the computers worked on. It was surprising to see the book gloss over the 1969 moon landing and other important events. I understand that such manned projects were not ones the human computers often worked on, but still, it would have been exciting to learn more about how women have contributed to manned missions as well. To satisfy my curiosity, I might pick up other books such as Hidden Figures in the future. While Rise of the Rocket Girls is an excellent book on the history of women in space exploration and engineering, it is definitely not the only one out there.
Next, there are numerous photos included in the book of the women computers, the rockets and other spacecraft they helped develop, and various locations and events at JPL. I loved looking at every single picture. They made the story come to life, and helped me remember that I was reading about events that actually happened thanks to actual people. My one critique is that the majority of the pictures are tacked on to the end of the book, at least in the ebook version I read. I would have found it helpful if they were more dispersed throughout the book, so that I saw them when I was actually reading about what each photo depicted.
I also have to take a moment to praise the exceedingly thorough research Holt poured into this book. She based much of what she wrote on in-person interviews, and accurately acknowledges that without the firsthand accounts of many of the women she writes about, the book would never exist. The inclusion of so many firsthand accounts and stories is what makes this book feel so real and intimate, what makes it far surpass the overview a textbook would provide, and what makes the stories feel so real, because they’re told through the words of those who actually experienced those moments. Holt fact-checked and provided a citation for every single bit of information. This made the book so much easier to read, because there was no opportunity to get distracted by confusing or inaccurate writing.
Like I mentioned in my previous review of David McCullough’s 1776, one of the reasons I enjoyed Rise of the Rocket Girls so much more than a typical history book was its use of a narrative format. By writing the history in creative nonfiction, Holt easily draws me into the stories. I found myself frustrated whenever I had to stop reading to attend to something else because I was so excited to find out what happened next. That is a rare feeling for me when I read nonfiction, so it was a pleasant surprise.
In conclusion, I highly recommend Rise of the Rocket Girls for anybody interested in the history of space exploration, engineering, computer technology, women in STEAM, and women in the American workforce. Even though my life is very different from the human computers at JPL, their hard work and perseverance is truly inspiring, and I am grateful Holt has told their stories.