Science in the 20th Century and BeyondA compelling history of science from 1900 to the present day, this is the first book to survey modern developments in science during a century of unprecedented change, conflict and uncertainty. The scope is global. Science's claim to access universal truths about the natural world made it an irresistible resource for industrial empires, ideological programs, and environmental campaigners during this period. Science has been at the heart of twentieth century history - from Einstein's new physics to the Manhattan Project, from eugenics to the Human Genome Project, or from the wonders of penicillin to the promises of biotechnology. For some science would only thrive if autonomous and kept separate from the political world, while for others science was the best guide to a planned and better future. Science was both a routine, if essential, part of an orderly society, and the disruptive source of bewildering transformation. Jon Agar draws on a wave of recent scholarship that explores science from interdisciplinary perspectives to offer a readable synthesis that will be ideal for anyone curious about the profound place of science in the modern world. |
Contents
1 INTRODUCTION | 1 |
Part I Science after 1900 | 13 |
2 NEW PHYSICS | 15 |
3 NEW SCIENCES OF LIFE | 44 |
4 NEW SCIENCES OF THE SELF | 63 |
Part II Sciences in a World of Conflict | 87 |
5 SCIENCE AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR | 89 |
QUANTUM THEORIES AND OTHER WEIMAR SCIENCES | 118 |
12 SCIENCE AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR | 263 |
13 TRIALS OF SCIENCE IN THE ATOMIC AGE | 301 |
14 COLD WAR SPACES | 330 |
SCIENCES FROM THE WORKING WORLD OF ATOMIC PROJECTS | 354 |
SCIENCES FROM INFORMATION SYSTEMS | 367 |
Part IV Sciences of our World | 401 |
SEA CHANGE IN THE LONG 1960s | 403 |
18 NETWORKS | 433 |
7 SCIENCE AND IMPERIAL ORDER | 142 |
PRIVATE WEALTH AND AMERICAN SCIENCE | 161 |
9 REVOLUTIONS AND MATERIALISM | 186 |
10 NAZI SCIENCE | 211 |
11 SCALING UP SCALING DOWN | 229 |
Part III Second World War and Cold War | 261 |
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academic American argued astronomers atomic bomb Big Science Biological and Earth biological warfare Bowler and Pickstone Britain British Caltech Cambridge History Cambridge University Press cells chemical chemistry Cold Cold War culture early Earth Sciences Einstein electrical electrons energy engineering eugenic example experiment experimental funding genes genetics German global historian History of Science human genome project industrial Institute invention J. B. S. Haldane John Kevles knowledge laboratory Large Hadron Collider Linus Pauling London Manhattan Project Mathematical Sciences ment military Modern Biological Modern Physical molecular biology National Nature Nazi nuclear Oppenheimer organization Oxford particles Paul Peter Galison Physical and Mathematical physicists political post-war problems production programme protein psychology Quoted ibid radar radio revolution Robert Rockefeller Foundation scale scientific scientists Second World sequence social Society Soviet Union synthesis techniques tion twentieth century United weapons wrote X-ray