TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 453 Rickover and the Nuclear Navy: The Discipline of Technology. By Francis Duncan. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1990. Pp. xxvii + 374; illustrations, notes, appendixes, bibliography, index. $28.95. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover’s reputation has encountered some rough sailing in recent accounts of his life and work. Francis Duncan’s excellent new book shifts the focus away from Rickover’s demanding, abrasive, and sometimes abusive treatment of subordinates and colleagues to his strengths and achievements. Duncan acknowledges the less admirable characteristics of his protagonist but does not dwell on them. On balance, he believes that the admiral’s virtues far outweighed his flaws. Indeed, he suggests that Rickover’s personality was a key to his success in building the nuclear navy. Even though his brusque and uncompromising manner caused tension and resent ment, his relentless commitment to excellence and his refusal to lower his standards made safe and reliable nuclear ship propulsion possible. Duncan’s primary interest is not Rickover the man but the organi zation he created. The main theme of the book, as the title indicates, is the “discipline of technology.” Duncan uses the phrase to summa rize Rickover’s recognition of the demands that advanced technology places on those who utilize it. In short, the “discipline of technology means that the organization must adapt to the technology, and not the technology to the organization” (p. 293). This inevitably caused friction between Rickover’s operation and more traditional units within the navy. Rickover refused, for example, to use the timehonored ways of selecting officers when making assignments for nuclear submarines, and he spurned the common practice of allowing shipyards to place components of dubious or substandard quality in the vessels they built. What was acceptable for manning or construct ing other ships, he insisted, was not good enough to meet the needs of the nuclear navy. Duncan provides thoughtful and comprehensive treatment of major events in the history of the nuclear navy from 1957 until Rickover’s forced retirement in 1982, including the development of advanced submarines, the loss of the Thresher in 1963, and the bureaucratic struggles over nuclear-powered surface ships. He also offers a valuable account of another of Rickover’s major projects, the construction and operation of the nation’s first nuclear power plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Throughout the book, Duncan views events from the perspective of the Naval Reactors organization, and his thorough examination of its positions is an important addition to scholarly literature. On occasion, however, it obscures the opinions and inherently disparages the judgment of individuals and groups with competing ideas. It would have been interesting, for example, to learn more about the reasons that elements in the navy and the Department of Defense fought so hard against Rickover on the issue 454 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE of nuclear surface ships. Did they do so because they thought Rickover was wrong or merely because they found him obnoxious? A fuller account of operational problems at and public attitudes toward Shippingport would also have been useful. It is a measure of the merits of Duncan’s book that one wishes he had provided even more discussion of some issues. Rickover and the Nuclear Navy is a valuable contribution; its scholarly approach to complex and controversial questions makes it essential reading for serious students of the nuclear age. J. Samuel Walker Dr. Walker is historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and author of “Nuclear Power and the Environment: The Atomic Energy Commission and Thermal Pollution, 1965-1971,” which appeared in the October 1989 issue of Technology and Culture. Chronique de trente années d’équipement nucléaire à Électricité de France. By Georges Lamiral. 2 vols. Paris: Association pour l’histoire de l’électricité en France, 1988. Pp. x +424/450; tables, appendix, index. F 250.00. Shortly before his removal in January 1964, the national electric company chairman stood before the president waiting to be noticed. “Monsieur Gaspard,” said Charles de Gaulle at length, with hardly a glance up from his writing, “I am not pleased with EDF.” Again in 1967, this time before a high-level meeting on nuclear power, de Gaulle said...