World as Laboratory : Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men

by Rebecca Lemov

• ISBN13: 9780809074648
• ISBN10: 0809074648
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2005-11-29
• Publisher: Hill and Wang

Summary

Deeply researched, "World as Laboratory "tells a secret history that' s not really a secret. The fruits of human engineering are all around us: advertising, polls, focus groups, the ubiquitous habit of " spin" practiced by marketers and politicians. What Rebecca Lemov cleverly traces for the first time is how the absurd, the practical, and the dangerous experiments of the human engineers of the first half of the twentieth century left their laboratories to become our day-to-day reality.

Author Biography

Rebecca Lemov teaches history and anthropology at the University of Washington. This is her first book.

Table of Contents

Introduction	3	(8)
PART ONE MAZES: INTO THE LABORATORY
Strange Fruits and Virgin Births	11	(13)
Running the Maze	24	(22)
Embracing the Real	46	(25)
PART TWO ROOMS: FREUD AND BEHAVIORISM COME TOGETHER
Psychic Machines	71	(16)
Circle of Fear and Hope	87	(20)
In and Out of the South	107	(18)
An Ordinary Evening in New Haven	125	(22)
PART THREE FILES: OUT OF THE LABORATORY
The Biggest File	147	(23)
Anthropology's Laboratory	170	(18)
The Impossible Experiment	188	(34)
The Real World	222	(21)
Conclusion	243	(8)
Notes	251	(26)
Acknowledgments	277	(2)
Index	279