The Republican War on Science - Hardcover

Mooney, Chris

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465046754 ISBN 13: 9780465046751

Publisher: Basic Books, 2005

Synopsis

A stinging indictment of how one party has placed politics over science and embraced politically motivated pseudoscience in its place Science has never been more crucial to deciding the political issues facing America. Yet science and scientists have less influence with the federal government than at any time since the Eisenhower administration. In the White House and Congress today, findings are reported in a politicized manner; spun or distorted to fit the speaker's agenda; or, when they're too inconvenient, ignored entirely. On a broad array of issues - stem cell research, climate change, missile defense, abstinence education, product safety, environmental regulation, and many others - the Bush administration's positions fly in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus. Federal science agencies, once fiercely independent under both Republican and Democratic presidents, are increasingly staffed by political appointees and fringe theorists who know industry lobbyists and evangelical activists far better than they know the science. This is not unique to the Bush administration, but it is largely a Republican phenomenon, born of a conservative dislike of environmental, health, and safety regulation, and at the extremes, of evolution and legalized abortion. In The Republican War on Science, Chris Mooney ties together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of the US government's increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.

About this title

Review:

"...(This book) has to be praised in its original analysis ... We should be grateful to Chris Mooney for his diligence." -- Times Higher Education Supplement, December 22nd 2005

"Mooney takes several unrelated debates ... and stitches them together to form the bigger picture. (H)e weaves a pretty convincing tapestry." -- Anjana Ahuja, The Times, 24th September 2005

"Mooney...has bravely decided to thwack his way into this jungle of propoganda and lies on our behalf ... definitive ... disturbing." -- Johann Hari, The Independent , December 20th 2005

About the Author:

Chris Mooney, formerly an editor at The American Prospect, is a journalist specializing in science and politics. He has written for Mother Jones, Wired, the Boston Globe, Slate, and many other publications. This is his first book. Mooney lives in Washington, D.C.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0465046754
• ISBN 13: 9780465046751
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256