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SUMMARY:A political history of apolitical science - Audra J. Wolfe (Indepe
 ndent Scholar)
DTSTART:20190214T130000Z
DTEND:20190214T140000Z
UID:TALK117760@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Richard Staley
DESCRIPTION:The Cold War ended long ago\, but the language of science and 
 freedom continues to shape public debates over the relationship between sc
 ience and politics in the United States. From the late 1940s through the l
 ate 1960s\, the US foreign policy establishment saw a particularly America
 n way of thinking about 'scientific freedom' as essential to winning the C
 old War. In this presentation drawn from her new book\, _Freedom's Laborat
 ory_\, historian Audra J. Wolfe will focus on a crucial moment of this sto
 ry\, the late 1950s\, when US policymakers explicitly articulated what it 
 meant to describe science as apolitical\, objective and international\, al
 l in the name of the intensely political goal of Cold War supremacy. A par
 ticularly troubling part of this story involves the government's decision 
 to funnel its propaganda efforts\, whenever possible\, through nongovernme
 ntal organizations of scientists. How should historians understand groups 
 of non-state actors doing the state's work? Does the concept of 'transnati
 onal science' even make sense for the Cold War?
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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