Abstract:
In the aftermath of Sputnik’s launch, sociologist C. Wright Mills posed a question to the American people: “Who wants to go to the moon, anyway?”. Mills, like others, did not believe the United States ought to engage in a ‘Space Race’. However, this is exactly what happened: the United States took up the challenge posed by Sputnik, and in just over a decade put men on the Moon. Today, this period of the Space Race is often characterized by a ‘master narrative’ which sees the United States, surprised by Soviet success, immediately take action to try and surpass the Soviets as quickly as they can. At its core, this narrative is one of American success, an underdog story echoed time and again by both historians and the public. The Americans, beaten at the start, try their best to catch up and win the Space Race – and they do. However, this narrative only tells a specific story. The ‘Sputnik Crisis’ assumes a uniform response to the Soviet satellite which centred on crisis. While fears of crisis certainly dominated public discourse, assuming it the sole response overlooks how many Americans actually felt. Utilising popular media such as newspapers and magazines, my thesis examines contemporary American responses to Sputnik. Rather than produce uniform, crisis-centred responses, I find American responses to Sputnik vary significantly. American thinking regarding Sputnik’s significance in the military, scientific, and domestic spheres often reflected contemporary concerns, and while there are many who see crisis, there are also many who push against this perspective. The American response to Sputnik demonstrates that the assumed ‘consensus culture’ of the 1950s is filled with divisions.
