Forged Consensus

Science, Technology, and Economic Policy in the United States, 1921-1953
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-691-14654-6
Verlag: Princeton University Press

Buch, Englisch, 286 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 439 g

Reihe: Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives

In this thought-provoking book, David Hart challenges the creation myth of post--World War II federal science and technology policy. According to this myth, the postwar policy sprang full-blown from the mind of Vannevar Bush in the form of Science, the Endless Frontier (1945). Hart puts Bush's efforts in a larger historical and political context, demonstrating in the process that Bush was but one of many contributors to this complex policy and not necessarily the most successful one. Herbert Hoover, Karl Compton, Thurman Arnold, Henry Wallace, Robert Taft, and Curtis LeMay--along with more familiar figures like Bush--are among those whose endeavors he traces.Hart places these policy entrepreneurs in the broad scheme of American political development, connecting each one's vision of the state in this apparently esoteric policy area to the central issues, events, and figures of mid-century America and to key theoretical debates. Hart's work reveals the wide range of ideas, often in conflict with one another, that underlay what later observers interpreted as a "postwar consensus." In Hart's view, these visions--and the interests and institutions that shape their translation into public policy--form the enduring basis of American politics in this important area. Policymakers today are still grappling with the legacies of the forged consensus.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hart, David M.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PrefaceAbbreviationsCh. 1The Malleability of American Liberalism and the Making of Public Policy3Ch. 2The Republican Ascendancy and the Crash: Associative Undercurrents in a Conservative Era, 1921-193230Ch. 3Trial and Error: Science, Technology, and Economic Policy in the First Roosevelt Administration, 1933-193662Ch. 4Breaking Bottlenecks and Blockades: The Heyday of Reform Liberalism, 1937-1940, and Its Postwar Consequences83Ch. 5Old Fights, New Accommodations: Wartime Experiments and the Demise of Reform Liberalism, 1940-1945117Ch. 6Groping toward Management: Science, Technology, and Macro-and Microeconomic Policy, 1945-1950145Ch. 7"The Crescendo of Hideous Invention": The National Security State Comes of Age, 1945-1953175Ch. 8The Past in the Present: The "Hybrid" in the Cold War and Beyond206Bibliography235Index259

Über Autor(innen)

Hart, David M.
David M. Hart is Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.