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Cold War Social Science: Knowledge Production, Liberal Democracy, and Human Nature. Edited by Mark Solovey and Hamilton Cravens. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Pp. xviii+270. $90.
Is there such a thing as "cold war social science"? The question has been debated for some years now. Certainly the phrase refers to a period of history, a time when some social sciences, like any other sciences, were produced. But was the cold war determinant of or simply influential on the kind of social science produced? Was there a specific kind of social science produced during this period?
Yes, according to Mark Solovey, Hamilton Cravens, and their colleagues. Scientists claimed their work was vital to national security and well-being in a cold war context; they contracted with military organizations and produced the right sort of knowledge for the related cold war tasks, research useful to policymakers, among others. Yet could cold war...