Cold War competition with the Soviet Union drove US rural library expansion

Evidence

The first Texas bookmobile, in 1930, carried about 1,400 volumes; the New Deal WPA project provided another thirty-three bookmobiles. … Ironically, it was Cold War anxieties of Soviet technological superiority that spurred a concerted effort to improve library provision in rural areas through the Library Services Act of 1956. — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 831

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how directly did Sputnik-era anxieties shape other public infrastructure spending beyond libraries?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 831
• XREF: connects to: Libraries were active participants in war, not just victims — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 736; Middle East bases persist to dominate oil reserves, not to deter the Soviet Union; Cold War American identity was built on performed hatred of the Soviet Union. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 220