From Cold War to consumer world [video 3 min 10 sec]
A new exhibition, opening this week at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, reveals how the period of icy relations between the Soviet Union and the West stimulated a feverish creativity which propelled us forward toward the modern era, generating much of the technology that dominates everyday life.
But could a new Cold War be round the corner? Russia's recent military intervention in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, wresting control of two separatist enclaves as the country turned to embrace Nato shocked the West, and Russia took offence at the West's objections.
Suddenly, it seems, mutual suspicion, hostile rhetoric and overt competition between the former superpowers has returned.
"What does the Cold War produce?" asks Jane Pavitt, the exhibition's co-curator. "It produces radar, satellite, microwave ovens, computers, transistor radios, the internet!
"In one sense, the Cold War created our contemporary push-button world - the technology of the microwave, computer, or even the bomb. There is a tension about this technology - it is both a tool of annihilation and optimism."..
Read entire article at BBC
But could a new Cold War be round the corner? Russia's recent military intervention in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, wresting control of two separatist enclaves as the country turned to embrace Nato shocked the West, and Russia took offence at the West's objections.
Suddenly, it seems, mutual suspicion, hostile rhetoric and overt competition between the former superpowers has returned.
"What does the Cold War produce?" asks Jane Pavitt, the exhibition's co-curator. "It produces radar, satellite, microwave ovens, computers, transistor radios, the internet!
"In one sense, the Cold War created our contemporary push-button world - the technology of the microwave, computer, or even the bomb. There is a tension about this technology - it is both a tool of annihilation and optimism."..