American Spaceflight History's Master Narrative and the Meaning of Memory

摘要

The term master narrative typically refers to a set of sociocultural interpretations of events agreed upon by most of the interpreters of the event or age, and these are abundantly apparent when considering the history of the Space age. It may be argued that there are four narratives that have emerged concerning the u.S. space program, one that is a master narrative and three minor variations. these include: 1) the overwhelmingly dominant narrative of american triumph, exceptionalism, and success; 2) the counter narrative of criticism of the space program from the left, wasting funds on a worthless expense that yielded little when so many americans could have benefited from spending on social programs; 3) a more recent narrative of criticism of spaceflight from the right of the political spectrum focusing on the program as a representation of liberal taxing and spending strategies; and 4) a fringe narrative that sees in the U.S. space program a close tie to all manner of nefarious activities. This essay will seek to discuss these four narratives and how they have interrelated over the 50 years of the Space age.