This is an informative and fascinating look at a 16-year period in U.S., Soviet and German history, beginning with a German V-2 rocket attack on the UK in late 1944, and ending with the United States belatedly but finally catching up to and surpassing the Soviet Union in ballistic missiles and the space race.Prior to listening to this audiobook (which I've listened to twice already), I had the same sketchy, superficial knowledge of Sputnik that most people probably have, and which can be summed up in two or three sentences. There is so much more to the story, as this book's author, Matthew Brzezinski, reveals, starting with the role of German rocket scientists in the USSR's and the USA's missile efforts, and even before that, the activities by the US and Soviet military at the end of WWII to beat each other at tracking down and spiriting away German rockets, rocket parts, rocket manufacturing facilities, and rocket scientists (some of whom, Brzezinski suggests, probably were war criminals).Brzezinski provides a fascinating insight into the political, military and economic scene in the Soviet Union under Stalin and Khruschev, and how those spheres of activity impacted each other and the USSR's ballistic missile and space efforts. Brzezinski also explains how the USSR's early space firsts propelled it into a superpower in the eyes of world, even though the ironic reality was that it was all perception, not reality. Sure, the Soviets launched the first transcontinental missile and the first satellite into space, but observers outside the USSR, especially the US media, erroneously leapt to the conclusion that these firsts meant that the USSR was capable of raining missile-borne destruction on the US and its allies. As Brzezinski's research shows, nothing could have been further from the truth. No such attack was even remotely possible. Furthermore, the money that the Soviets sank into missile testing and space shots had been siphoned away from other military programs, the upshot of which was that the Soviets' overall military posture had been significantly weakened.Brzezinski also provides a fascinating look into the political and military scene in the Unites States, and the USA's missile and space efforts, which initially were hobbled and hindered by politicians and bureaucrats. One also learns fascinating details of the U2 program, life in 1950s El Paso, Texas and Huntsville, Alabama, and racial integration in the South. One cannot help but have a new opinion of Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon Johnson after learning about how they helped or hindered the US' missile and space initiatives.This book does an excellent job of describing and explaining an important part of US and Soviet history, thereby also helping the reader to have a better understanding of the US, USSR, and post-USSR Russia since then. If you are a Baby Boomer who was too preoccupied with childhood pursuits in the 1950s to be aware of the geopolitical and military scene in the US and USSR, this book will fill in some important gaps for you.