Description
Book SynopsisA political history of twentieth-century oceanographyOceanographers and the Cold War is about patronage, politics, and the community of scientists. It is the first book to examine the study of the oceans during the Cold War era and explore the international focus of American oceanographers, taking into account the roles of the US Navy, US foreign policy, and scientists throughout the world. Jacob Darwin Hamblin demonstrates that to understand the history of American oceanography, one must consider its role in both conflict and cooperation with other nations. Paradoxically, American oceanography after World War II was enmeshed in the military-industrial complex while characterized by close international cooperation. The military dimension of marine science--with its involvement in submarine acoustics, fleet operations, and sea-launched nuclear missiles--coexisted with data exchange programs with the Soviet Union and global operations in seas without borders. From an uneasy cooperati
Trade Review"Oceanographers and the Cold War is of tremendous value, as it challenges readers, and other historians, to take into account not just the national background of various marine scientific enterprises, but international issues and the overarching political themes of an era, which affect how science is done."
* History of Philosophical and Life Sciences *
"The lessons embedded in this narrative continue to resonate in a contemporary world which looks quite different, even as the meanings of Cold War contexts, marine environmental science, and international collaboration evolve for a new era. "
* H-Net *
"[This] book is the first to provide a deeply researched, historically sound, insightful and provocative view of how military goals, scientific motivations and global political forces interacted in the growth of oceanography between the end of World War II and the 1970s."
* The Journal of Military History *
Table of ContentsPreface
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Beginnings of Postwar Marine Science and Cooperation
2. Oceanography's Greatest Patron
3. The International Geophysical Year, 1957-1958
4. The New Face of International Oceanography
5. Competition and Cooperation in the 1960s
6. Oceanography, East and West
7. Marine Science and Marine Affairs
8. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
