Science, History and Social Activism

by Mendelsohn, Everett; Allen, Garland E.; Macleod, Roy M.

• ISBN13: 9781402004957
• ISBN10: 1402004958
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-07-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

This book highlights not only aspects of the career of Everett Mendelsohn, one of the premier historians of biology of our age, but also a wide range of topics that are now grouped under the general heading of science studies. This broad collection includes articles on the relations between science and the military, science as narrative, natural history and conservation, Marxism and science, the Human Genome Project, and the relation of philosophy to the study of embryonic development in the 18th century. This book is essential not only for those who admire Professor Mendelsohn's work but also for those who want a slice of the current field of science studies. Audience: The main readership of this volume consists of historians of science, technology, and medicine, and sociologists of science. The book will also appeal to philosophers of science and biologists. Those interested in Middle Eastern studies will find the discussion of Professor Mendelsohn's political work in this area, as well as the article dealing with his activism in general, of considerable interest.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(22)
Garland E. Allen
Roy M. MacLeod
I. Historical Studies in the Life Science and Society
Advocating the History of Science	23	(14)
Jane Maienschein
Radical Nature in the Encyclopedie	37	(24)
Shirley Roe
August Weismann and Ferdinand Dickel: Testing the Dzierzon System	61	(16)
Frederick B. Churchill
Mendel's Hypothesis	77	(10)
Raphael Falk
Biopower: Reflections on the Rise of Molecular Biology	87	(18)
Lily E. Kay†
II. Perspectives in the Social of Science
China, ``Qi,'' and the Challenges of Engaged Scholarship	105	(18)
Anne Harrington
How to Tell a Story in the Sciences: Settings and Lessons	123	(14)
Helga Nowotny
A Healthy Regard for the Facts	137	(16)
Peter Buck
The Dark Side of Progress	153	(14)
Jean-Jacques Salomon
The Loss of Distance: Science in Transition	167	(18)
Peter Weingart
Radical Politics and Marxism in the History of Science	185	(18)
Garland E. Allen
``The Social Context of Science'': Social Sciences as a Way of Life and Learning	203	(14)
Gary Werskey
III: Science, Society and the Social Responsibility of Scientists
Naturalists as Conservationsts: American Scientists, Social Responsibility, and Political Activism before the Bomb	217	(18)
Mark V. Barrow, Jr.
Human Experimental Abuse, in and out of Context	235	(20)
Robert N. Proctor
Networks in Action: The Khrushchev Era, the Cold War and the Transformation of Soviet Science	255	(22)
Mark B. Adams
The Multidimensional Chess of Science and Society: A Postwar Debate over Plutonium Exposure	277	(14)
Gilbert F. Whitemore
Radioactive Fallout and Emerging Environmentalism: Cold War Fears and Public Health Concerns, 1954-1963	291	(16)
Elizabeth S. Watkins
``Strictly for the Birds'': Science, the Military and the Smithsonian's Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program, 1963-1970	307	(32)
Roy MacLeod
The Human Genome Project: Past, Present and Future Anterior	339	(26)
Michael A. Fortun
IV. Postscript: Everett Mendelsohn and the Middle East
``Speaking Justice to Power: Everett Mendelsohn as an International Public Intellectual	365	(4)
Yaron Ezrahi
Bibliography: The Published Writings of Everett Mendelsohn	369	(6)
Notes on Contributors	375	(8)
Index	383