James Spiller

In Frontiers for the American Century: Outer Space, Antarctica, and Cold War Nationalism, James Spiller argues, during the Cold War, “outer space and Antarctica became frontiers for the American Century, each a tabula rasa whose conquest would positively transform the human condition” (pg. 203). He demonstrates how Life Magazine founder Henry Luce’s 1941 essay, “The American Century,” coupled with the lingering effects of Fredrick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis shaped American policy and public perception of space and Antarctic exploration during the Cold War.
Spiller structures his argument into four chapters. The first argues, “The imprint of Sputnik remained strong during the ensuing decade as NASA and the NSF managed these leading exploratory programs [space and Antarctica] so that they paid practical dividends, sparked domestic pride, and enhanced US prestige” (pg. 22). In his second chapter, Spiller argues that frontier ideology led Americans to believe that “the pioneering efforts of the US space and Antarctic programs would engender on a global scale the blessings of freedom and prosperity Americans had long enjoyed owing to their history of frontier expansion” (pg. 67). Focusing on Antarctic exploration, the third chapter argues, “In response to novel challenged to America’s interests in the region and new priorities for research there, they [NASA and the USAP] primarily depicted the United States as steward of the south polar environment rather than conqueror of an Antarctic frontier” (pg. 115). In his final chapter, Spiller argues that NASA in the 1980s “embraced the rhetoric of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and exalted the space frontier, now pioneered by American men and women of all races, as a means of revitalizing the nation and securing its international leadership” (pg. 159). Spiller adapted this book from his dissertation, “Constructing America at the Peripheries: The Cultural Politics of U.S. Science and Exploration in Outer Space and Antarctica, 1950s-1990s.”
Spiller draws upon a rich and varied source base, including internal memoranda of NASA and USAP, promotional materials of both programs, formerly confidential and declassified reports, and popular films and print media. He uses these to demonstrate how the ideology surrounding NASA and the USAP permeated all levels of the national discourse.… (meer)