'If I Forget Thee, O Earth . . .'

“If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth” dates to 1951. How does it reflect the anxieties of the Cold War era?

Consider the story’s depiction of the future—e.g., the image of “the great ships that were still waiting here on the silent, dusty plains […] lift[ing] once more into space, along the road that led to home” (406). What is the tone of such passages? How does this relate to the story’s themes?

Clarke warns the reader about the danger of humanity destroying itself with its own technology, but the lunar colony could not exist without technology. How does the story reconcile the tension between technology’s dangers and its promise?