Science with a Vengeance: How the Military Created the U.S. Space Sciences after World War II by David H. DeVorkin

Abstract

628 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE as a one-volume survey, its value as a reference source, potentially great, is lessened by an index largely confined to proper nouns. I. B. Holi.ey, Jr. Dr. Holley is with the Department of History at Duke University. Science with a Vengeance: How the Military Created the U.S. Space Sciences after World War II. By David H. DeVorkin. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1992. Pp. xxii+404; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $69.00. After World War II, the availability of a new tool, high-altitude rockets, transformed studies of the upper atmosphere and space, as well as the nature of the research communities concerned with such studies. The “Vengeance” of the title refers to the German V-2s which came to the United States as war booty and became the catalyst for this scientific revolution. Traditional practitioners in this region of science— astronomers, cosmic-ray physicists, meteorologists—played only a mar­ ginal role in the new effort. The new set of workers came into the field because they wanted to work with rockets; what they brought was expertise in optics, electronics, and other areas needed to devise instruments useable with rockets. All this meant a field radically changed. Successful scientists in this context “had to be special people, working for a special patron,” the military, a patron “interested in the ability to perform technical experiments with rockets as much as the results of those experiments” (p. 3). So, at least, David DeVorkin argues in this persuasive monograph based on extensive archival research and oral history testimony, as well as the published record. After a short introduction and a chapter on prewar high-altitude research, the main text is divided in two distinct parts. Part 1, “Military Origins,” comprises eight chapters covering 169 pages. Fundamentally chronological, it spans roughly a decade, beginning in 1942 with German high-altitude research using V-2s and ending as planning for the International Geophysical Year started. Among other topics covered are the transfer of rocket technology to the United States, the organi­ zation and support of research using V-2s, the technical problems new users faced in devising instruments suitable for V-2s, and the develop­ ment of new, specialized research rockets. This part of the book sets upper atmospheric research firmly in its military context. DeVorkin effectively shows the significance of military interest in seeing such work done, primarily because of its relevance to the trajectories of prospective long-range missiles. Military laboratories became the setting for groups involved in the work, while field operations relied on military-based technical and managerial infrastructure. The book’s second part, “Science with a Vengeance,” describes the experiments rockets made possible and the scientific findings that resulted, in 147 pages divided among seven chapters. This part, in TECHNOLOGYAND CULTURE Book Reviews 629 contrast to the first, is essentially topical. It treats solar, cosmic ray, and upper atmospheric and ionospheric research, following the technical and managerial problems that each group of researchers faced in using rockets as instrument carriers. DeVorkin pays special attention to how the several traditional scientific communities responded to rocket-based findings. Many readers will find part 2, in particular, hard going; the author clearly knows a good deal about the sciences he discusses and the instruments needed for their study and makes few concessions to those less familiar with the material. From the viewpoint of a historian of technology, Science with a Vengeance offers two major subjects of interest: first, the process of making scientific instruments useable in rockets; and second, the human structure that supported the enterprise. Developing the scientific instru­ ments required to exploit the novel opportunity high-altitude rockets offered was a complex process, involving a range of technical skills not previously associated with high-altitude research. Partly for that reason, the data they yielded found a cool reception among traditional practitio­ ners that could be overcome only with much effort. DeVorkin also devotes substantial attention to defining the complex organizational structure of the V-2 experimental program and to tracing the interactions between military sponsors, various laboratories and research groups, and diverse research traditions. It offers a compelling case study of another area...