what it really was – part of the arms race between Russia and the US

Space race, sure (not always for arms, but for prestige and chest-thumping rights), but it was more than that, an accomplishment that was valued in and of itself.

Putting men on the moon and returning them home safely remains to me by far the most awe inspiring example of what humanity is capable of. The 60’s were a hell of a decade, most of the technology we use today took its first steps then.

It was THE achievement. It was during the 1960s, by the way, that we not only saw strife and the start of truly pathological changes to liberalism in the USA and in the West, but prior to that, liberalism had scored all the big victories, which have long been accepted by US society as the norm and even used by conservatives as the basis for criticizing and insulting other nations who aren’t so enlightened and modern (women’s rights, gay rights in the Middle East and on the Indian Subcontinent).

And look at what was driving much of the other things that were done then, things accepted now such as Medicare (in fact, sought by many now for everyone in this country — mainstream, no longer radical) — it wasn’t the angry, pathological streak of liberalism at work here. It was the ambitious part of liberalism and society overall (to whom a conservative was something of an alien at the time) — the Sixties were ambitious, optimistic years for this country. Once we reached the moon, the public was indifferent — it would have been made interested again if we were to go to Mars, but that was not going to sought until 1976. (“Due to lack of interest,” and to reduce costs, Apollo missions 18, 19, and 20 were cancelled.) In fact, the Sixties ambition and optimism carried forward all the way until the oil crash in 1973.

1869, competion of transcontinental railroad;

1969, visit of man to the Moon.

The century between the 1850s and 1950s, the change from the old to the new world with all it offers, the Scientific Revolution (and continuation of the Industrial Revolution), the movements outside the USA for more freedom, the burgeoning origins of modern liberalism (which diverges from classic liberalism or libertarianism to include greater democracy and state welfare programs as well as other state programs with the development of modern nation-states), the development of the world outside the West (yes, involving colonialism and imperialism), criticism of government (run by the rich and well-connected) and one’s place in life and how society is organized, advances in applied science and engineering such as railroads, then electricity, and automobiles, and modern medicine including techniques to control infection, bleeding, and pain during surgery, development of vaccines, etc. — all that took place, and even portions of it are amazing. My late grandmother began life when there were still horses for transportation, and lived long beyond when man trod the Moon.

In Europe and for the world overall, 1848-1948 (from 1848, until 1948) is probably the precise definition of “the” century.

In the USA it is either 1860-1960 or 1865-1965.

If you want a top-of-the-ivory-tower century involving these changes, including most at either end, think of 1863 (battle of Gettysburg, fall of Vicksburg) on to 1963 (loss of the refreshing, optimistic nature of the era of, with the murder of, JFK).

* a non-Western name would be superior

2. “Not with Bush in the White House!” (beat you)