They came in peace for all mankind: popular culture as a reflection of public attitudes to space

Abstract

It has always been clear that one of the main driving forces behind the space race was Cold War propaganda. But just what impact did it have on ‘the minds of men everywhere’? This paper presents a survey of the impact of space exploration on popular culture in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, concentrating chiefly on the cinema. Before the launch of Sputnik in 1957, although space was present in popular culture, it was generally aimed at a specialised audience. In the 1960s, interest in space became widespread and reached unexpected corners of popular culture such as pop music. This popular success had dangerous consequences, however: when public interest waned in the early 1970s, the immense cost of the Moon landings could no longer be justified on propaganda grounds and the project was massively reduced.