They are modern philosophers. The time period we are talking about is when God stopped being the main problem of mankind. The mankind itself became the real deal. No more theocentrism, now we think about we, the humans that we are, the economic issues that troubles the poor members of society, the searching for the answers that God and the church didn't shared to us. These philosophers began to create methods of studying and criticize the knowledge, mainly in political matters.
One goal of both countries during this time was to reach space first. The Russians were the first to successfully send a man into orbit, however the U.S.reached the moon first.