Twenty Years of Science in the Public Interest: A History of the Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship Program by Jeffrey K. Stine

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 211 works. In the 20th century, the enormous reclamation works of the Zuider Zee were managed by this government body, as was the cre­ ation of the large “Delta works” that protect the Scheldt/Maas/Rhine delta against floods. Probably due to the groups that sponsored it, the book has a strange mix of focuses: on the one hand, it is the history of man-made lowlands in the Netherlands, while on the other, it is a more general history of water management in the Netherlands, as well as a history of hydraulic engineers from the Netherlands. As a result, the main story (presumably, man-made lowlands) is often interrupted by dis­ tracting tales of Dutch hydraulic engineers abroad and water manage­ ment in the higher parts of the country (which is completely different from water management in the lowlands). The book could have been much stronger if its focus of analysis had been, not water manage­ ment in the Netherlands, but water management in the lowlands of northwestern Europe. As a nation, the Netherlands was only created at the end of the 16th century, but in this work it seems that medieval water-management problems were bounded by borders that would result from a war yet to come. The book is written by several authors, which is at some points rather disturbing. Not only is there repetition; in some chapters water management in the Netherlands is analyzed as an interplay of socio­ political, economic, technical, and geographical variables, while in others geographic and geophysical peculiarities of the country seem to be the main explanation for the development of the watermanagement system. But perhaps one book isjust not enough to deal with such a rich subject. Karel Mulder Dr. Mulder is reader in technology assessment, Faculty of Technology and Society, Delft University of Technology. He has published on the history of windmill technol­ ogy and on the history of synthetic fibers and plastics. Twenty Years ofScience in the Public Interest: A History ofthe Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship Program. By Jeffrey K. Stine. Washington, D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1994. Pp. xiii+192; notes, appendixes, index. $15.95 (paper). In 1980, the American Historical Association (AHA) began sup­ porting two participants in the Congressional Science and Engi­ neering Fellowship Program administered by the American Associa­ tion for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). It will not surprise readers of thisjournal to learn that the historian most active in push­ ing the AHA to help historians serve Congress—and to link that help 212 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE to a program originally created for scientists and engineers—was the late Melvin Kranzberg. This book, a retrospective look at the fellowship program, is full of such gems—the little connections and anecdotes that bring to life what could be a dry administrative history. Written by historian of technology Jeffrey K. Stine, himself an AHA Congressional Fellow in the mid-1980s, it provides a thematic overview of how more than 500 scientists and engineers were lured (or more often, leaped enthu­ siastically) from their technical positions into jobs in the thick of the national legislative process. As a case study in science and technology policy, the book shows the importance of social movements (the fel­ lowship program emerged from the social and political turmoil of the late 1960s) intersecting with individual initiative (Stine attributes major parts of the program to the personal persuasion of physicist Joel Primack and to the generous funding and behind-the-scenes arguments of AAAS treasurer William Golden). It shows the interac­ tion of grand ideas (helping Congress deal with technical topics) and the implementation of those ideas (specific people sponsored by spe­ cific societies in specific congressional offices). Although the idea for a fellowship program in which scientists and engineers would serve as consultants to legislators, instead of to the executive branch, emerged in 1970, the AAAS program did not begin until mid-1973. In the meantime, the American Society of Mechani­ cal Engineers (ASME) produced the first congressional intern earlier that year. Eventually the ASME program would be administered by AAAS, just as programs started or founded by...