ABSTRACT
W. W. Rostow was one of the best and brightest to join the John F. Kennedy administration in 1960, bringing with him a philosophy of economic history that was perfectly consistent with Kennedy’s goal of reinvigorating the American Golden Age. Rostow has written many books, including Process of Economic Growth and the more popular Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto, from which the selection is taken. His superior academic credentials, along with his years of service in government, lent particular weight to his theory of economic modernization. Daniel Bell has written numerous books and articles, including The End of Ideology, from which the selection is taken, and The Coming Post-Industrial Society. The selection is from that speech, which warned of and defined the enduring Cold War breach between the Atlantic powers and their wartime ally on the Eastern Front, the Soviet Union.
