Frontiers for the American Century compares the U.S. space and Antarctic programs during the Cold War. It examines the reciprocal influence of federal science and technology and of American internationalism, and details how powerful interests and public opinion leaders used culturally salient terms, particularly the nationalist motif of the frontier, to promote these strategic initiatives. Space and Antarctic exploration were two of the most dramatic and dramatized national endeavors of this period, regarded for a time as pioneering endeavors that would help engender an American Century of gathering freedom and prosperity for all humankind. By accounting for the varying fate of this frontier motif in the final years of the Cold War, this study explains why proponents of the U.S. Antarctic Program came to focus on global environmental stewardship while advocates of spaceflight once again urged America to pioneer the space frontier.
