American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe

By - Krige, John.

Floor - Floor 2

Published - Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2006.

ISBN 10 - 0262112973

ISBN 13 - 9780262112970

Book Status - 1 Qnty Available with us.

Subject - Science--Europe--History--20th century.

Shelf No - 1

Call Number - 509.4090 KRI

Physical Description - viii, 376 p. ; 24 cm.

Notes - Includes bibliographical references and index.

Book Information

Annotation In 1945, the United States was not only the strongest economic and military power inthe world; it was also the world's leader in science and technology. In American Hegemony and thePostwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe, John Krige describes the efforts of influential figuresin the United States to model postwar scientific practices and institutions in Western Europe onthose in America. They mobilized political and financial support to promote not just America'sscientific and technological agendas in Western Europe but its Cold War political and ideologicalagendas as well. Drawing on the work of diplomatic and cultural historians, Krige argues that thisattempt at scientific dominance by the United States can be seen as a form of "consensual hegemony, "involving the collaboration of influential local elites who shared American values. He uses thisnotion to analyze a series of case studies that describe how the U.S. administration, seniorofficers in the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, the NATO Science Committee, and influentialmembers of the scientific establishment--notably Isidor I. Rabi of Columbia University and VannevarBush of MIT--tried to Americanize scientific practices in such fields as physics, molecular biology, and operations research. He details U.S. support for institutions including CERN, the Niels BohrInstitute, the French CNRS and its laboratories at Gif near Paris, and the never-established"European MIT." Krige's study shows how consensual hegemony in science not only served the interestsof postwar European reconstruction but became another way of maintaining American leadership and"making the world safe for democracy."

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