Scientists at War: The Ethics of Cold War Weapons Research - Rilegato

Bridger, Sarah

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0674736826 ISBN 13: 9780674736825

Casa editrice: Harvard Univ Pr, 2015

Riassunto

Scientists at War examines the ethical debates that severely tested the American scientific community during the Cold War. Sarah Bridger highlights the contributions of scientists to military technologies and strategic policymaking, from the dawning atomic age in the 1940s through the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) in the 1980s, which sparked a cross-generational opposition among scientists.

The Manhattan Project in the early 1940s and the crisis provoked by the launch of Sputnik in 1957 greatly enhanced the political clout of American scientists. Yet many who took up government roles felt a duty to advocate arms control. Bridger investigates the internal debate over nuclear weapons policy during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, when scientific advisors did not restrict themselves to technical assessments but made an impassioned moral case for a nuclear test ban. The relationship between government and science began to fray further during the Vietnam War, as younger scientists inside and outside of government questioned the morality of using chemical defoliants, napalm, and other non-nuclear weapons. With campuses erupting in protest over classified weapons research conducted in university labs, many elder statesmen of science, who once believed they could wield influence from within, became alienated. The result was a coalition that opposed “Star Wars” during the 1980s—and a diminished role for scientists as counselors to future presidents.

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Recensione

This"will be a landmark book, widely read and frequently consulted. Bridger s scientists emerge as flesh-and-blood actors facing complex sets of constraints, and even as serious if not always sophisticated political thinkers with strong feelings about international relations and the ethics of weapons research. --Andrew Jewett, author of "Science, Democracy, and the American University: From the Civil War to the Cold War""

Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: Harvard Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0674736826
• ISBN 13: 9780674736825
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 350
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile