Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

Chapter 9
Great (Unfulfilled) expectations:
to Boldly Go Where No Social Scientist
or historian has Gone Before 1
Jonathan Coopersmith
the start of the Space age, its morphing into the space race, and president
John F. Kennedy’s launch of project apollo excited not only engineers and
scientists but also social scientists and historians. Neil armstrong’s words,“One
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” embodied not only the justifed
pride of a spectacular technological accomplishment but also the bold hopes of
the american academy of arts and Sciences (aaaS) to harness the space
program to apply the social sciences for the beneft of society and government.
For the aaaS, its “ultimate goal . . . would be to develop a system for the
continuing monitoring of important efects of space eforts,together with a reporting
of these efects in appropriate terms to the appropriate agency.” 2 the participating
historians had goals no less impressive. MIt professor Bruce Mazlish declared “In
short, we are really attempting to set up a new branch of comparative history: the
study of comparative or analogous social inventions and their impact on society.” 3
this paper examines this NaSa-funded aaaS project in the mid-1960s
to understand why such lofty goals existed, what the project accomplished, and
where the humanities and social sciences stand in relation to the space program
some four decades later.
aaaS prOJeCt
Like the american president who set the apollo program in motion, this
efort had a Massachusetts origin. In February 1962, the aaaS established the
Committee on Space eforts and Society, which bid on and received a $181,000
1 I would like to thank Steven Dick, roger Launius, and peter Stearns for looking at early versions
of this paper.
2.
3.
earl p. Stevenson, “report of the Committee on Space,” Records of the Academy (American Academy
of Arts and Sciences), 1963/1964, 151.
Bruce Mazlish, “historical analogy: the railroad and the Space program and their Impact on
Society”, in Bruce Mazlish, ed. The Railroad and the Space Program. An Exploration in Historical
Analogy (Cambridge, Ma: MIt press,
1965), p. 12.