642 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE threatens the traditional universalism and openness in science. But the historian might be consoled by Lorraine Daston, who argues that nationalism in science had already begun during the Napoleonic time. John Krige discusses England’s participation in CERN and shows that scientists not only function as advisers in science policy questions but also can actually decide these questions. What this means for the development of modern scientific technology remains to be examined in detail. Could one ask for ajoint study by Kranakis and Krige on this point? This nicely edited and produced volume concentrates on the history of science—also included are Roger Hahn and Michael Hunter’s treatment of the role of the academies for the growth of science, Matti Klirige and J. B. Morell’s discussion of the role of universities, and Robert Friedman and David Edge on the significance of prizes and award systems in science. It also points to important problems, and raises important questions in the territory between history of technology and history of science. Anders Lundgren Dr. Lundgren, of the Department for History of Science and Ideas at Uppsala University, specializes in the history of chemistry. He has published on 18th-century chemistry and Swedish history of science and is now working on the history of biochemistry in Sweden. Science and the Soviet Social Order. Edited by Loren R. Graham. Cam bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. Pp. ix + 443; notes, index. $35.00. Anti-industrialists in the Soviet Union often capture U.S. press attention. They include environmentalists, rural writers who idealize holy, peasant Russia, and an increasing number of nonspecialists. This volume brings together essays exploring the historical basis of these views and long-term, coexisting protechnology trends in Russian and Soviet culture. Editor Loren Graham clearly identifies the issues, and their grounding in Soviet studies and historical interactions of tech nology and culture, including the current debate over science as a construct of society versus its international character and nature. The essays continue the tradition of such diverse scholars as Kendall Bailes, Nancy Frieden, and Camilla Gray. They bring us up-to-date, in most cases, and investigate new tensions between technological achievements and their cultural and political milieu. Unfortunately, they omit the cinematic arts. And, in spite of the broad title, the authors rarely mention science apart from technology; they concentrate on technology’s influence on culture, slighting the oppo site issue, the influence of culture on science and technology. More over, most of the essays treat society as a single entity and do not TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 643 address the different ways science or technology affects different economic or regional strata, women or men, city or rural folk. In a very upbeat, optimistic discussion of communication technol ogies, S. Frederick Starr argues that, by selecting information avail able through new technologies, a formerly dependent “subject” is transformed into a “citizen” (p. 44). Seymour Goodman posits a controlled spread of the information revolution, empowering a managerial class. However, he draws heavily on “Western” experience for his analysis and does not convince the reader that the average Soviet manager influences policy. A challenging essay by Douglas Weiner discusses the relation between ecology and conservation. He outlines protagonists’ efforts to define and defend theoretical positions, the entry of philosophers into the debates, and the efforts of the intellectual elite to influence Soviet policies. Weiner ties the broadening discussion in the Soviet Union with comparable trends in Europe and the United States. Mark Adams focuses on “the relative roles of the ‘biological’ versus the ‘social’ in shaping human nature and behavior.” Adams identifies the Soviet characteristics of the debate and anchors it in a discussion of scholars, students, and institutions. His presentation is compelling; one misses the immediacy of his descriptions of personal client systems and institutional settings in the later essays. Harley Balzer surveys the education, professionalization, and na scent political activity of engineers. He studies the decline in engi neers’ prestige, linking it to factors in economic failures, changing social structure, and the Communist party’s involvement. Paul Josephson discusses the success of the party and scientists in nuclear power engineering and rocketry...
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Sep 1, 1994
Serge Cipko 
