[D66] The Tragedy of American Science - From Truman to Trump

[R.O.]

The Tragedy of American Science
 From Truman to Trump
by Clifford D. Conner 
<https://www.haymarketbooks.org/authors/912-clifford-d-conner>

Hardback 
<https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1467-the-tragedy-of-american-science>, 
300 pages 
<https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1467-the-tragedy-of-american-science>

ISBN: 9781642591279

August 2020

$26.95 $21.56 20% off

With free bundled ebook

Ebook

ISBN: 9781642592030

Read on any device <https://www.haymarketbooks.org/pg//>

May 2020

$26.99 $16.19 40% off

A compelling and timely account of the corruption, corporatization, and 
militarization of science in the United States.

The tragedy of American science is that its direction is determined by 
private profit rather than by the desire to improve the human 
condition.  As a result, Connor argues, Big Science has been 
irredeemably corrupted by Big Money.  This corruption threatens the air 
we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the medicines we take.

/The Tragedy of American Science/ explores how the U.S. economy’s 
addiction to military spending distorts and deforms science by making it 
overwhelmingly subservient to military interests.  The primary motive 
driving American science and technology has become the search for new 
and more efficient ways to kill people.  This transforms science from 
the classic ideal of a creative force for the advancement of humankind 
into its destructive and antihuman opposite.  That those trillions of 
dollars in resources and scientific talent are not devoted to solving 
the problems of poverty, disease, and environmental destruction is one 
of the greatest tragedies of our times.

While the underlying problems may appear intractable, Conner 
compellingly argues that replacing the current science-for-profit system 
with a science-for-human-needs system is not an impossible, utopian 
dream. But to get there, we’ll need to grapple with this important history.

Reviews

  *

    "Clifford Conner's examination of the military and corporate capture
    of science in the US could not be more relevant. He makes the urgent
    case that human needs, and not profits or militarism, should guide
    scientific inquiry." *—Sarah Lazare, /In These Times

    /*"I highly recommend this book and consideration of what I take to
    be its main message: science could have worked wonders if properly
    used (and if a bit of military budgets were spent on something
    useful) and perhaps it still can." *—/World Beyond War

    /*"American political and intellectual culture today, including
    scientific culture, is in a state of decay. The denial of
    human-caused climate change, the destruction of scientific records
    by the government, the attack on public education, and most
    recently, the Center for Disease Control’s banishing words such as
    “scientific-based” and “evidence-based” are significant indications
    of this. The policies of the masters of corporate greed and the
    military-industrial complex are ruinous. We can fight back by
    discrediting their junk ideas and magical thinking. Cliff Conner’s
    book helps immensely in this effort." *—Michael Steven Smith,
    Co-host, Law And Disorder Radio

    *"Clifford Conner’s remarkable study does so much more than simply
    ask and answer how American science has become weaponized over the
    past century. /The Tragedy of American Science/ is a thorough and
    vividly engaging account—a history of science that draws deeply on
    social and geopolitical analysis, and with excellently crafted case
    studies. It is a call to rethink the myths of American
    exceptionalism that, under the guise of scientific altruism and U.S.
    foreign policy, have cultivated a science-for-profit system. Despite
    its unflinching disdain for the corporatization of research, policy,
    and practice, Conner’s story is not a pessimistic one. Instead, with
    keen insight, wit, and an empathetic eye on the future, Conner helps
    rescue the promise of science from the tragedy it has become."
    *—Jacob Blanc, author of Before the Flood: the Itaipu Dam and the
    Visibility of Rural Brazil

    *"In /The Tragedy of American Science from Truman to Trump/ Cliff
    Conner has brought together journalists, advocates, leakers, and
    litigators to restore the principles of free inquiry from its
    perversions by the big lies of Big Food, Big Oil, Big Pharma, and
    Big War. It is truly in the tradition of I.F. Stone and Seymour
    Melman. The method is true and it is simple: they lift the big rock,
    and let fresh air and sunlight expose the little, nasty, squirmy
    things underneath." *—Peter Linebaugh, author of /Red Round Globe
    Hot Burning/ (2019)*

    *
    Praise for Conner’s /A/ **/People’s History of Science/**:*


    "Cliff Conner's /A People's History of Science /is a delightfully
    refreshing new look at the history of science. I know of nothing
    like it..." —*Howard Zinn

    *"/A People's History of Science /sticks up for little guys. . . .
    Clifford D. Conner finds the fingerprints of the common man on
    humanity's great advances." —/*New York Times Book Review

    */"Conner writes clearly and skillfully shows connections as he
    ranges across time periods and disciplines from medicine to art to
    astronomy." —/*Publishers Weekly

    */"[An] eloquently written book is accessible to lay readers and
    equally valuable for scholars. Highly recommended." —/*Library Journal

    */"Valuable..." —/*Booklist*/

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