Cold War Science
Examines the history and legacy of the Cold War on science and the environment in the US and the world. Explores scientists' new political roles after World War II, ranging from elite policy makers in the nuclear age to victims of domestic anti-Communism. Also examines the changing institutions in which various scientific fields were conducted during the postwar decades, investigating possible epistemic effects on forms of knowledge. Subject closes by considering the places of science in the US during the post-Cold War era.
Fall 2008
This seminar examines the history and legacy of the Cold War on American science. It explores scientist's new political roles after World War II, ranging from elite policy makers in the nuclear age to victims of domestic anti Communism. It also examines the changing institutions in which the physical sciences and social sciences were conducted during the postwar decades, investigating possible epistemic effects on forms of knowledge. The subject closes by considering the place of science in the post-Cold War era.
Readings
- Gordin, Michael. Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780691128184.
- McMillan, Priscilla. The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race . New York, NY: Viking, 2005. ISBN: 9780670034222.
- Holloway, David. Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956 . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780300060560.
- Wang, Jessica. American Science in an Age of Anxiety . Durham, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780807824474.
- Hoover, J. Edgar. “The Crime of the Century: The Case of the A-bomb Spies.” Reader’s Digest 58 (May 1951): 149-68.
- Kirsch, Scott. Proving Grounds: Project Plowshare and the Unrealized Dream of Nuclear Earthmoving . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780813536668.
- Eden, Lynn. Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge, and Nuclear Weapons Devastation . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780801472893.
- Mody, Cyrus C. M. “Book Reviews: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, the Nuclear Reactor, the Computer, Ham Radio, and Recombinant DNA.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 38 (2008): 451-461.
- Forman, Paul. “Behind Quantum Electronics: National Security as Basis for Physical Research in the United States, 1940-1960.” Historial Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 18 (1987): 149-229.
- Engerman, David. “Rethinking Cold War Universities: Some Recent Histories.” Journal of Cold War Studies 5 (2003): 80-95.
- Krige, John, and Kai-Henrik Barth, eds. In Osiris, Volume 21: Global Power Knowledge: Science and Technology in International Affairs . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780226454047.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None Acad Year 2027-2028: Not offered Acad Year 2028-2029: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2008
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.