How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind – The Strange Career of Cold War Rationality
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20th century
A01=Judy L. Klein
A01=Lorraine Daston
A01=Michael D. Gordin
A01=Michael Gordin
A01=Paul Erickson
A01=Rebecca Lemov
A01=Thomas Sturm
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Judy L. Klein
Author_Lorraine Daston
Author_Michael D. Gordin
Author_Michael Gordin
Author_Paul Erickson
Author_Rebecca Lemov
Author_Thomas Sturm
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behavioral sciences
biological evolution
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJK
Category=HBLW3
Category=HBTW
Category=HPS
Category=JBCC9
Category=JFCX
Category=NHK
Category=NHTW
Category=QDTS
center for advanced study
cold war
COP=United States
council on foreign relations
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
democracy
economic history
economics
engineering
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eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
historical research
intellectual campaign
international topics
Language_English
nuclear brinkmanship
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political science
powerful politicians
Price_€20 to €50
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psychology
rand corporation
rationality
russia
sharp minds
sociology
softlaunch
soviet union
technology
top military brass
united states
wealthy foundations
Product details
- ISBN 9780226324159
- Weight: 386g
- Dimensions: 154 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 17 Nov 2015
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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In the United States at the height of the Cold War, roughly between the end of World War II and the early 1980s, a new project of redefining rationality commanded the attention of sharp minds, powerful politicians, wealthy foundations, and top military brass. Its home was the human sciences—psychology, sociology, political science, and economics, among others—and its participants enlisted in an intellectual campaign to figure out what rationality should mean and how it could be deployed. How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind brings to life the people—Herbert Simon, Oskar Morgenstern, Herman Kahn, Anatol Rapoport, Thomas Schelling, and many others—and places, including the RAND Corporation, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Cowles Commission for Research and Economics, and the Council on Foreign Relations, that played a key role in putting forth a \u201cCold War rationality.\u201d Decision makers harnessed this picture of rationality—optimizing, formal, algorithmic, and mechanical—in their quest to understand phenomena as diverse as economic transactions, biological evolution, political elections, international relations, and military strategy.
The authors chronicle and illuminate what it meant to be rational in the age of nuclear brinkmanship.
Paul Erickson is assistant professor of history and science in society at Wesleyan University and lives in Middletown, CT. Judy L. Klein is professor of economics at Mary Baldwin College and lives in Staunton, VA. Lorraine Daston is director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and visiting professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. She lives in Berlin, Germany. Rebecca Lemov is associate professor of the history of science at Harvard University and lives in Cambridge, MA. Thomas Sturm is a Ramon y Cajal Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and lives in Cerdanyola del Valles, Spain. Michael D. Gordin is professor of the history of science at Princeton University and lives in Princeton, NJ.
