SuitabookEarthrise
James Gladstone
- Reading
- Pause over the image and the transcript-based dialogue, then use the author’s note to explore what the photograph shows and how it became connected with Earth Day.
- Themes
- A photograph’s wider significance: The book connects the Earthrise image with a view of Earth as a fragile shared home and with the environmental movement. It presents the photograph’s influence as a change in perspective that helped galvanise environmental concern and spark hope.
- Mission moment and historical context: Apollo 8 astronauts were surveying the Moon when they looked up and saw Earth rising above the lunar landscape. The narrative joins a specific moment aboard the spacecraft to events and reactions back on Earth, including the unrest of 1968.
- Worth knowing
- The historical backdrop includes war, unrest and public marches for peace, fairness and freedom. These are presented as context for the photograph’s moment and reception.