Combined with other public health advances treatment, which had begun in the 1930s, expanded in the 1960s. Water had virtually eliminated the spread of waterborne diseases like late 1950s the use of nuclear medicine procedures for diagnostics andĬholera and typhoid. Of sewage sanitation systems and public supplies of clean drinking The first nuclear power plants in the United States came online in the To cite just a couple of statistics: by the 1930s, the creation Cold War loomed large, peaceful uses of atomic energy were emerging. Profoundly transformative effect on the nation and on individuals and deployed by the United States and the Soviet Union in the ongoingįamilies. In 1964, glimmers of the changes that would transform Americanīut when they first occurred, these advances and innovations had a society were beginning to enter public awareness. Today these conveniences are so commonplace that we think century would take for grantedâadvances in computers, communica-Ībout them only when thereâs a problemâthe power is out, thereâs tions, and health care, among other fields.Ī water main break, or two lanes on a bridge are closed for repairs. laying the foundation for scores of advances that Americans in the 21st Rest stops for gas and food, and standardized signageâthat connected national security concerns and the Department of Defense, were quietlyĪn ever-growing number of cities and towns from coast to coast. Trip on the new interstate highway systemâincluding bridges, tunnels, tions between the mid-1940s and mid-1960s, many driven by Cold War And the family could take its summer road become clear in the latter part of the 20th century, engineering innova. Electric power materials, and much, much more. The American peopleânot only for electrification,īy the mid-1960s, thanks to the work of engineers in the decades just sanitation, and water supply and distribution, but also for automobiles,īefore and after World War II, Americans were accustomed to many highways, refrigeration, air-conditioning, aviation, high-performanceĬonveniences in daily life.

Ture essential to the health, prosperity, and security of In response to public demand, public policy, and anĭawn of the Digital Age intrinsic creative drive, engineers created the infrastruc. None of those advances happened by chance. Power lines brought millions of Americans in ruralĬommunities literally out of the âdark ages.â Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages. Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book.

Dawn of man advanced to the next age