The Social Sciences Go to Washington: The Politics of Knowledge in the Postmodern Age

Hamilton Cravens, Ed./ Contributions by Editor, A. Bernstein, Harvey M. Sapolsky, Philip L. Frana, Howard P. Segal, Michael Hal Rothman, Kristin D. Nawrotzski, Anna Mills Smith, Maris Vinovskis, Zane L. Miller, and William Graebner

ISBN 10: 0813533414 / ISBN 13: 9780813533414

Published by Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ and London, 2003

About this Item

254pp., viii. NAP. Glossy wraps illustrated with full front cover, tinted photo-illustration of "A limousine carries Adm. Chester Nimitz past the U.S. Capitol, October 5, 1945", with thin white trim around perimeters, title lettering in black across top front cover, editor name lettering in smaller black letters at left upper middle front cover. Contributions in three Parts ("The Social Sciences Come to Washington"; "The Social Sciences as Process and Procedure"; and "Have the Social Sciences Mattered in Washington?") and nine Chapters (with Notes at ends of chapters): Hamilton Cravens, "Introduction: The Social Sciences, the Federal Government, and the Age of Modernism", pp. 1-3; Cravens, "American Social Science and the Invention of Affirmative Action, 1920's-1970's", pp. 9-40; Michael A. Bernstein, "American Economics and Public Purpose after Depression and War," pp. 41-59; Harvey M. Sapolsky, "The Science and Politics of Defense Analysis," pp. 67-77; Philip L. Frana, "A Risk Perceived is a Risk Indeed," pp. 78-109; Howard P. Segal, "Postwar Science and Technology Policy," pp. 110-128; Hal Rothman, "The Road to NEPA, EPA, and Earth Day", pp. 135-154; Kristen D. Nawrotzski, Anna Mills Smith, and Maris Vinovskis, "A Historical Analysis of Developments in Head Start, Kindergartens, and Day Care", pp. 155-180; Zane L. Miller, "Cultural Individualism, Hyperdiversity, and the Devolution of National Urban Policy", pp. 181-213; William Graebner, "Narrating Welfare's Decline, from the Moynihan Report (1965) to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (1996)", pp. 214-232; Cravens, "Afterword", pp. 233-235; Index, 239-254. UNREAD. (No previous owner names.).

Seller Inventory # 001399

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Social Sciences Go to Washington: The Politics of Knowledge in the Postmodern Age
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ and London
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813533414
• ISBN 13: 9780813533414
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

What happens when the allegedly value-free social sciences enter the national political arena?  In The Social Sciences Go to Washington, scholars examine the effects of the massive influx of sociologists, demographers, economists, educators, and others to the federal advisory process in the postwar period. Essays look at how these social scientists sought to change existing policies in welfare, public health, urban policy, national defense, environmental policy, and science and technology policy, and the ways they tried to influence future policies.

Policymakers have been troubled that followers of postmodernism have questioned the legitimacy of scientific and political authority to speak for the desires of social groups. As the social sciences increasingly become expressions of individual preferences, the contributors ask, how can they continue to be used to set public policy for us all? 

This collection is a useful resource for anyone studying the relationship between science and the government in the postwar years.

About the Author

Hamilton Cravens is a professor of history at Iowa State University and author of several books, including The Triumph of Evolution: The Heredity-Environment Controversy 1900-1941, and Before Head Start: The Iowa Station and America's Children.