International Science Between the World Wars: The Case of Genetics

by Krementsov,Nikolai

• ISBN13: 9780415350600
• ISBN10: 0415350603
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-04-19
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

What is international science and how does it function? This book answers these questions through a detailed study of international congresses on genetics held from 1899 to 1939. It presents a portrait of international science as a product of continuous interactions that involved scientists and their patrons within specific political, ideological, and disciplinary contexts. Drawing on a variety of archival sources--ranging from Stalin's personal papers to the records of the Gestapo and from the correspondence among scientists in different countries to the minutes of the Soviet government's top-secret meetings--it depicts the operations of international science at a time of great political tensions. Arguing that personal networks constitute a major structural component in the discipline's formation, Krementsov traces the emergence of international networks in genetics and explains their role in shaping the international community's reaction to national developments which threatened to undermine the verystanding of genetics as an international discipline and which, in the end, profoundly affected the fate of the congress and the fate of the discipline.

Author Biography

Nikolai Krementsov is an Associate Professor at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

List of plates	xi
List of abbreviations	xiii
Preface	xv
Prologue: a forty-year long road	1	(10)
Genetics as an international discipline	3	(1)
Between "nationalism" and "internationalism": institutions, ideologies, and networks	4	(2)
International science between the world wars: politics, patronage, and disciplines	6	(3)
"Dual loyalties"	9	(2)
PART I International genetics congresses, 1899-1939	11	(62)
1 Genetics as an international science	13	(21)
Building an international discipline	13	(6)
'Acclimatization" of genetics in Russia	19	(4)
The road to Berlin	23	(7)
US and Soviet genetics	30	(4)
2 The road to Moscow	34	(19)
The Great Break	34	(2)
The road to Ithaca	36	(6)
Setting up the Moscow congress	42	(4)
Cancellation turned postponement	46	(7)
3 The road to Edinburgh	53	(20)
Oslo	53	(4)
Moscow	57	(5)
Between worlds	62	(6)
Edinburgh	68	(5)
PART II Between patrons and peers	73	(70)
4 Soviet geneticists and their patrons	75	(26)
Party patrons and international science	75	(4)
From invitation to cancellation	79	(12)
From cancellation to re-invitation	91	(6)
From Moscow to Edinburgh	97	(4)
5 Soviet geneticists and their peers	101	(23)
The international community and its Soviet branch	101	(3)
The personal	104	(3)
The collective	107	(5)
The political	112	(7)
The "apolitical"	119	(5)
6 International science: ideologies, patrons, and networks	124	(19)
Dual loyalties	125	(6)
'Academic" versus "applied" genetics	131	(5)
Networks of trust	136	(7)
Epilogue: another forty-year long road	143	(6)
Notes	149	(32)
Index	181