About the Author: Robert Zimmerman
Robert Zimmerman is an award-winning science journalist and historian who has written six books and more than a hundred articles on science, engineering, and the history of space exploration and technology. He also reports on space and science news at his website, BehindtheBlack.com.
His recent policy paper for the Center for a New American Security, CAPITALISM IN SPACE: PRIVATE ENTERPRISE AND COMPETITION RESHAPE THE GLOBAL AEROSPACE LAUNCH INDUSTRY, documents the recent fast paced changes being wrought worldwide by the new commercial space industry. His last history, THE UNIVERSE IN A MIRROR: THE SAGA OF THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE AND THE VISIONARIES WHO BUILT IT (Princeton University Press), tells the story of the people who conceived, built, and saved the Hubble Space Telescope, while his first book, GENESIS, THE STORY OF APOLLO 8 (Mountain Lake Press)) describes the epic family and political tale behind the first manned mission to another world and is now available as an ebook. His space history LEAVING EARTH: SPACE STATIONS, RIVAL SUPERPOWERS, AND THE QUEST FOR INTERPLANETARY TRAVEL (Joseph Henry Press), was awarded the American Astronautical Society's Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award in 2003 as that year's best space history for the general public.
His magazine and newspaper articles have appeared in ASTRONOMY, AIR & SPACE, SCIENCE, NATURAL HISTORY, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, USA TODAY, WIRED, INVENTION & TECHNOLOGY, THE FEDERALIST, and a host of other publications. In 2000 he was co-winner of the David N. Schramm Award, given by the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society for Science Journalism, for his essay in THE SCIENCES, "There She Blows," on the 35-year-old astronomical mystery of gamma ray bursts.
In addition to his writing, Mr. Zimmerman is also a cave explorer and cartographer, and has participated in numerous projects exploring and mapping previously unknown caves across the eastern United States. It is this activity that has allowed him to actually "go where no one has gone before," thus providing him a better understanding of the perspective of the future space explorers on Mars and beyond as they struggle to push the limits of human existence.
Robert Zubrin: "Zimmerman's ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says."
The human race is about to go to the stars. Big rockets are being built, and nations and private citizens worldwide are planning the first permanent settlements in space.
When we get there, will we know what to do to make those first colonies just and prosperous places for all humans?
Conscious Choice answers this question, by telling a riveting and accurate history of the first century of British settlement in North America. That was when those settlers were building their own new colonies, and had to decide whether to include slaves from Africa.
In New England slavery was vigorously rejected. The Puritans wanted nothing to do with this institution, desiring instead to form a society of free religious families, a society that became the foundation of the United States of American, dedicated to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
In Virginia however slavery was gladly embraced, resulting in a corrupt social order built on power, rule, and oppression.
Why the New England citizens were able to reject slavery, and Virginians were not, is the story that Conscious Choice tells, a story with direct implications for all human societies, whether they are here on Earth or on the farflung planets across the universe.
What others are saying:
Rand Simberg:
"In its '1619 Project,' a false and libelous narrative of America's past has recently been promoted by the New York Times. In a useful corrective, Zimmerman's book provides well-documented and new historical insights into the true history of slavery in colonial English America, with a cautionary warning for future settlers off the planet."
Douglas Mackinnon
"When humankind finally does venture forth to colonize the moon, Mars, and beyond, it is essential that each colonist have this book downloaded onto their tablet. It will guide them and most likely save them."
James Bennett:
"How was slavery born in the deep south of the United States? Robert Zimmerman's book Conscious Choice provides the answer, in a well-researched, detailed, but readable book free of academic jargon. He shows that slavery was not predetermined but was instead a series of conscious choices made by key individuals of that day. He also shows that it was not necessary, as demonstrated by the decision of the northern British colonies to reject it.
"Zimmerman then uses this history to show how it provides lessons to future explorers when they found their own new colonies in space."
