The Tragedy of American Science
In The Tragedy of American Science, historian of science Clifford Conner addresses the corruption, corporatization and the militarization of science in the United States. Conner explores how the U.S. economy's addiction to military spending distorts and deforms science by making it overwhelmingly subservient to military interests. He examines the role of private profit considerations in determining the direction of scientific inquiry—and the ways those considerations have dangerously undermined the integrity of sciences impacting food, water, air, medicine, and the climate. Conner compellingly argues that replacing the current science-for-profit system with a science-for-human-needs system is not an impossible, utopian dream.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
“The history that Conner has laid bare impels all of us, as citizens or working scientists, to avoid the Faustian bargain of American exceptionalism.”
—Science for the People Magazine
“Clifford Conner’s examination of the military and corporate capture of science in the US could not be more relevant. He makes the urgent case that human needs, and not profits or militarism, should guide scientific inquiry.”
—Sarah Lazare, In These Times
“The Tragedy of American Science makes a strong case for freeing science">The Tra from the fetters of capital and rededicating it for the good of humanity.”
—Against the Current
“I highly recommend this book and consideration of what I take to be its main message: science could have worked wonders if properly used (and if a bit of military budgets were spent on something useful) and perhaps it still can.”
—World Beyond War
“Cliff Conner has brought together journalists, advocates, leakers, and litigators to restore the principles of free inquiry from its perversions by the big lies of Big Food, Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Big War. The method is true and it is simple: they lift the big rock, and let fresh air and sunlight expose the little, nasty, squirmy things underneath.”
—Peter Linebaugh, author of Red Round Globe Hot Burning