Constructing America at the peripheries: The cultural politics of United States science and exploration in outer space and Antarctica, 1950s--1990s

This study examines the nationalistic rhetoric pervading public discourse, expressed in a wide variety of interdependent media, about the United States space and Antarctic programs from the late 1950s to the 1990s. Viewing Americans during this period as alternately hopeful about a brighter future and anxious about proliferating threats to humanity, this dissertation explores how public-opinion makers regarded these federal programs as America's newest frontier efforts, the means of overcoming its threats and spreading freedom and prosperity to all people. Many more Americans were captivated by their nation's space activities than they were by its Antarctic endeavors. Commentators regularly treated both of these state technoscience programs, however, as uplifting examples of progress, demonstrations of America's stunning achievements in science and technology and attempts to heal a world riven by Cold War conflict. America's cosmic and Antarctic exploits were driven by national security concerns and many political and economic interests. But the public appeal of expensive federal space and Antarctic exploration lay not in these narrow concerns and interests but in the ways that these programs evoked the strength of America's economy and the virtue of its liberal ideology and political system. This study examines the nationalistic rhetoric of public observers---people in government, industry, the professions, and the media---and argues that whether they endorsed these programs owing to self-interest or to sincere attachment to the nation, they legitimized particular structures of political and economic power by casting space and Antarctic exploration in narratives about America's glorious future.; Constructing America at the Peripheries, explores the political nature of public discourse by analyzing how networks of people with complementary interests as well as desires to reinforce dominant conceptions of the United States depicted the importance of space and Antarctic exploration during this dynamic period. And it investigates the cultural dynamics of federal politics by exploring how government officials and their allies in industry, academia, and the media, relied on nationalistic rhetoric to garner public backing for America's politically, militarily, and economically important activities in the peripheral regions of outer space and Antarctica.