HIST 4933
Seminar: Cold War Science and Technology
Professor Asif Siddiqi
Spring 2024
Course Description
Science and technology played a crucial role in shaping the Cold War across the globe. In this course, through a series of primary and secondary readings, we will explore the interactions between science and technology and Cold War politics and culture. One of the central themes of the course will be the changing relationship between science and state power through the late twentieth century, with the former serving as an instrument of the latter while also benefiting from its largesse. Although the course will focus primarily on American science and technology, we will cover a wide range of scientific and technological issues spread across the globe, including Europe, the Soviet Union, and the non-Western world. In addition to developments driven by scientists, bureaucrats, and politicians, we will also study the role of popular engagement with Cold War science and technology, particularly through popular cultural forms such as film and comics. The course begins with the development of the atomic bomb and the ensuing nuclear arms race, but then moves on to other topics including the rise of the military-industrial complex, the space race, the origins of modern environmentalism, the development of the internet, and “everyday technologies."
Seminar: Cold War Science and Technology
Professor Asif Siddiqi
Spring 2024
Course Description
Science and technology played a crucial role in shaping the Cold War across the globe. In this course, through a series of primary and secondary readings, we will explore the interactions between science and technology and Cold War politics and culture. One of the central themes of the course will be the changing relationship between science and state power through the late twentieth century, with the former serving as an instrument of the latter while also benefiting from its largesse. Although the course will focus primarily on American science and technology, we will cover a wide range of scientific and technological issues spread across the globe, including Europe, the Soviet Union, and the non-Western world. In addition to developments driven by scientists, bureaucrats, and politicians, we will also study the role of popular engagement with Cold War science and technology, particularly through popular cultural forms such as film and comics. The course begins with the development of the atomic bomb and the ensuing nuclear arms race, but then moves on to other topics including the rise of the military-industrial complex, the space race, the origins of modern environmentalism, the development of the internet, and “everyday technologies."