NASA's history is a familiar story, culminating with the agency successfully landing men on the Moon in 1969. However, America's space agency wasn't created in a vacuum; it drew together some of the best minds the non-Soviet world had to offer. With a central narrative woven from the stories of key historical figures, Amy Shira Teitel tells the story of NASA's roots in an engaging and accessible way, against a backdrop of Nazism, communism, and imminent nuclear annihilation.  Breaking the Chains of Gravity is not a technical book. It follows the people, their personalities, motives and rivalries, the geopolitical environment, and the military ambitions related to the evolution of early rocketry.