OLLI Presents: Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War

Join OLLI for an online discussion with presidential historian and speechwriter Jeff Shesol on his new book, one of the Washington Post‘s “20 books to read this summer:”

Mercury Rising:
John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War

Thursday, June 17 at 7 pm

Free & Online via Zoom; Click Here to Register

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College hosts author Jeff Shesol for an online, interactive discussion of his book Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War.  If the United States couldn’t catch up to the Soviets in space, how could it compete with them on Earth? That was the question facing John F. Kennedy at the height of the Cold War— a moment when the Soviet Union built the wall in Berlin, tested nuclear bombs more destructive than any in history, and beat the US to every major milestone in space. The race to the heavens seemed a race for survival— and America was losing. When John Glenn blasted into orbit on February 20, 1962, his mission was greater than circling Earth; it was to calm the fears of the free world and renew America’s sense of self- belief. Mercury Rising re- creates the sense of tension to a flight that riveted the world. Drawing on new sources, interviews, and Glenn’s personal notes, Mercury Rising shows how the astronaut’s heroics lifted the nation’s hopes in what Kennedy called the “hour of maximum danger.”

Jeff Sheshol is is the author of Supreme Power and Mutual Contempt, both selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He is a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and is a founding partner of West Wing Writers.  For more information and to register for this free discussion, click here!