When the Soviet satellite Sputnik entered Earth’s orbit in October 1957 it caused panic throughout much of the West. This ‘beeping bauble’ was seen as an existential threat, that exposed democracies as being too preoccupied with consumer luxuries over scientific endeavour. In response, both Eisenhower and Menzies resolved calmly but resolutely to fix their nation’s systems of science education, to first compete with the Russians and then prepare for the future. Our guest Professor Jennifer Clark tells the untold story behind Menzies’s 1964 advent of Commonwealth funding for secondary schools, which was about more that the headline sectarian issue of ‘state aid’.

Want to learn more? Read about how the Menzies Government helped America win the space race.

Professor Jennifer Clark is a Professor of History at the University of Adelaide. Holding a PhD from the University of Sydney, she was a Harkness Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and, most recently, a Redmond Barry Fellow to State Library of Victoria. She was until recently Head of the School of Humanities, University of Adelaide.