The Compulsions of Cold War Science

The growth of Cold War tensions and the development of big science in the United States were intimately, and often inextricably, related. These two books provide vivid case studies of the connections between Cold War concerns and scientific activities. Both show how government spending to fight the Cold War helped cement an alliance between science and the military and, in important ways, defined the priorities that scientists addressed. They describe the consequences of large-scale military-scientific collaboration in two quite different settings. In On the Home Front, Michele S. Gerber focuses on environmental abuse and health hazards arising from plutonium production for nuclear weapons at the Hanford nuclear site in eastern Washington. In The Cold War and American Science, Stuart W. Leslie assesses the implications of military-sponsored research at two leading academic institutions, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University. Both books are important (but not unassailable) contributions to evaluating the relationship between science and the military in the Cold War era. Gerber's book shows how military demands took precedence over environmental and public health protection, but it falls lamentably short in illuminating the decision-making process at Hanford or explaining the context in which the plant's officials operated. Leslie's book offers an absorbing treatment of the development of the military-industrial-academic complex at MIT and Stanford, but he could have further enhanced its value by elaborating on some important issues. Gerber, a historian with Westinghouse-Hanford, the contractor that currently runs the complex for the Department of Energy, gives a frank and thorough description of the contamination of the soil, atmosphere, and Co

Cold war · Political science · Politics · Law · Twentieth Century Scientific Developments