Does science work best in a democracy? Were 'Soviet' or 'Nazi' science fundamentally different from science in the USA? These questions have been passionately debated in the recent past. Particular developments in science took place under particular political regimes, but they may or may not have been directly determined by them.
Science and Ideology brings together a number of comparative case studies to examine the relationship between science and the dominant ideology of a state. Cybernetics in the USA is compared to France and the Soviet Union. Postwar Allied science policy in occupied Germany is juxtaposed to that in Japan. The essays are narrowly focussed, yet cover a wide range of countries and ideologies. The collection provides a unique comparative history of scientific policies and practices in the 20th century.
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xi | |
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Introduction: science and ideology |
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1 | (16) |
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Science and totalitarianism: lessons for the twenty-first century |
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17 | (18) |
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``Ideologically correct'' science |
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35 | (31) |
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From communications engineering to communications science: cybernetics and information theory in the United States, France, and the Soviet Union |
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66 | (31) |
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Science policy in post-1945 West Germany and Japan: between ideology and economics |
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97 | (27) |
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The transformation of nature under Hitler and Stalin |
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124 | (32) |
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Legitimation through use: rocket and aeronautic research in the Third Reich and the U.S.A. |
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156 | (30) |
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Weaving networks: the University of Jena in the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the postwar East German state |
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186 | (41) |
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Friedrich Moglich: a scientist's journey from fascism to communism |
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227 | (34) |
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| Index |
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261 | |
Mark Walker teaches modern European history and the history of science and technology at Union College in Schenectady, NY. He has published several books and articles on science under National Socialism, including German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power, 19391949 (1989) and Nazi Science: Myth, Truth, and the German Atom Bomb (1995).
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