Science Studies during the Cold War and Beyond

This book recounts how during the Cold War the study of science moved to the centre of academic through the creation of the new discipline of science studies. In this way the volume charts the importance of these studies for the trajectory of Cold War nations through the elaboration of new national science policies and the transnational dialogue, even across the Iron Curtain, between key scholars involved in shaping their trajectory.  By examining how a new group of intellectuals was mobilized by state administrators to convincingly set up a discipline deemed to have major repercussions on the advancement of science in developed and undeveloped nations. Secondly, by putting the study of science at the centre of the dialogue (as well as the confrontation) between nations and Cold War blocs. The volume thus shows how an often considered arcane field of enquiring had in fact major implications for the understanding and fostering of Cold War science. 

Elena Aronova is an Assistant Professor at the History Department of the University of California at Santa Barbara, USA. She is completing her book, which examines the ways in which ideas about science have become a sphere of Cold War competition, on both sides of the 'iron curtain.' Her current project, Doing Things with Data, examines the politics of environmental data collection, archiving, and exchange during the Cold War.

Simone Turchetti is Lecturer at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester, UK. His research focuses on the interplay between scientists, intelligence officers and diplomats during the Cold War period. He is the author of The Pontecorvo Affair: A Cold War Defection and Nuclear Physics (2012), and more recently he has co-edited The Surveillance Imperative. Geosciences during the Cold War and Beyond.