What do you do after the end of the Civil War when your services are no longer required? If you are members of the Baltimore Gun Club, you decide to build a gun large enough to launch a rocket to the moon. From the Earth to the Moon follows the ambitions of Impey Barbicane, the president of the Gun Club, as his plan sets off an international space race. With uncanny details that presage the actual moon landings, large helpings of satire, and an action-filled plot, this novel is one of the early masterpieces of the science fiction genre, a genre that its author Jules Verne helped create.