In Sputnik's Shadow by Zuoyue Wang

In Sputnik's Shadow by Zuoyue Wang

In today’s world of rapid advancements in science and technology, we need to scrutinize more than ever the historical forces that shape our perceptions of what these new possibilities can and cannot do for social progress. In Sputnik’s Shadow provides a lens to do just that, by tracing the rise and fall of the President’s Science Advisory Committee from its ascendance under Eisenhower in the wake of the Soviet launching of Sputnik to its demise during the Nixon years. Members of this committee shared a strong sense of technological skepticism; they were just as inclined to advise the president about what technology couldn’t do—for national security, space exploration, arms control, and environmental protection—as about what it could do. Zuoyue Wang examines key turning points during the twentieth century, including the beginning of the Cold War, the debates over nuclear weapons, the Sputnik crisis in 1957, the struggle over the Vietnam War, and the eventual end of the Cold War, showing how the involvement of scientists in executive policymaking evolved over time. Bringing new insights to the intellectual, social, and cultural histories of the era, this book not only depicts the drama of Cold War American science, it gives perspective to how we think about technological advancements today.

In Sputnik's Shadow represents the most extensive and scholarly effort to document the role of the science advisory system in its difficult function of moderating scientific and technological excesses while at the same time promoting public interest— Wolfgang Panofsky, founding director, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLA)

Zuoyue Wang is a professor of history at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780813546889
ISBN 10	0813546885
Title	In Sputnik's Shadow
Author	Zuoyue Wang
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Rutgers University Press
Year published	2009-07-29
Number of pages	488
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable