History 391AH - S-Rise & Fall of Rocket State

America's rocket ride to the moon was based on the cannonball physics of Galileo and Newton, foreshadowed by Verne's vision of the Baltimore Gun Club, and driven by the needs of the cold war. The Rocket State was an extraordinary amalgam of fact, fantasy, and the fear of Armageddon that had profound consequences for American politics and culture in the years after World War Two. We'll explore its rise and fall, focussing on four of its characteristic technologies that emerged from WWII - the atomic bomb, the rocket, the computer, and an organizing social vision based on the secret laboratories of the Manhattan Project. In addition to some first-rate scholarship, we'll read quite of lot of science fiction - the defining literature of the cold war Rocket State. In short, this course is about a time in American history when the country learned how to build rockets and sought to redefine itself and its culture in their image.

Open to Seniors, Juniors & Sophomores only.