From the Earth to the Moon Themes

War—what is it good for? As it turns it, it's a pretty great way to achieve wealth and fame. During the Civil War, the fictional Gun Club made a name for itself by creating the best weapons on th...

A gigantic cannon might not seem like the most advanced technology these days, but in From the Earth to the Moon, it's a revelation. Written in the decades following the Industrial Revolution, the...

For some reason, no one writes a better depiction of America than a Frenchman. Although From the Earth to the Moon is ostensibly about its titular moon mission, the whole novel serves as an elabora...

There's a fine line between courage and insanity, and the characters of From the Earth to the Moon toe this line with reckless abandon. Barbicane is the sanest—he uses logic and careful planning...

If at first you don't succeed, you just need to build a bigger cannon. In From the Earth to the Moon, the infamous Gun Club has taken on its biggest mission yet—building a cannon that can reach t...

Patriotism is like wasabi—it's great in small doses, but brutal in large ones. In From the Earth to the Moon, America loses its collective mind over the Gun Club's mission to the moon. Sometimes...

The Gun Club is a bunch of nerds—they might as well hold their meetings at a local comic book shop. Fortunately, these highly intelligent fellows come of age in a time when science is becoming mo...

Captain Nicholl and President Barbicane hate each other. Each was an inventor during the Civil War—Barbicane created cannons and Nicholl built armor—but their personal war doesn't end when the...