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The Tragedy of American Science: From Truman to Trump
A look at the destructive history of science-for-profit, including its toll on the US pandemic response, by the author of A People’s History of Science. Despite a facade of brilliant technological advances, American science has led humanity to the brink of interrelated disasters. In The Tragedy of American Science, historian of science Clifford D. Conner describes the dual processes by which this history has unfolded since the Second World War, addressing the corporatization and the militarization of science in the US. 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. In addition, he explores the relationship between scientific industries and the US military, discussing the innumerable financial and human scientific resources that have been diverted from other critical areas in order to further military aggrandizement and technological development. While the underlying problems may appear intractable, Conner compellingly argues that replacing the current science-for-profit system with a science-for-human-needs system is not an impossible utopian dream—and the first step to a better future is grappling with the mistakes of the past.
354 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 5, 2020
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482 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 6, 2020
Really good, if incredibly depressing overview of American science, its original motivations and the driving forces of it. Went into detail of most industries and did a great job of connecting all of them to the causes.
September 9, 2021
disturbing
The book contains many interesting, very detailed, and quite disturbing accounts of the ways in which now necessarily Big Science is suborned by Corporate and Military interests. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Some serious questions are raised. Many examples are given of rampant corruption and dishonesty at every level.
So, what else is new? You thought they were going to be honest and objective and serve the general good!! You thought they ever did !! Jeez. How old are you ... Ten? People will lie cheat and steal to pursue their own immediate short term interest - in whatever form that takes. There are very very few exceptions but plenty of hypocrites and pretenders.
The book rapidly degenerates into a one-eyed hatchet job - and all around anti capitalist rant. The real agenda. Some of the problems identified are very real. The authors proposed solutions are simplistic and ludicrous.
Just one aspect of this would be vast central planning committees heavily regulating Science for ‘the good of all mankind’. Yeah right. Like that’s going to work. Out of the frying plan and into the fire. The people who run these committees would inevitably pursue THEIR own immediate short term interest in whatever form that were to take.
The book contains many interesting, very detailed, and quite disturbing accounts of the ways in which now necessarily Big Science is suborned by Corporate and Military interests. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Some serious questions are raised. Many examples are given of rampant corruption and dishonesty at every level.
So, what else is new? You thought they were going to be honest and objective and serve the general good!! You thought they ever did !! Jeez. How old are you ... Ten? People will lie cheat and steal to pursue their own immediate short term interest - in whatever form that takes. There are very very few exceptions but plenty of hypocrites and pretenders.
The book rapidly degenerates into a one-eyed hatchet job - and all around anti capitalist rant. The real agenda. Some of the problems identified are very real. The authors proposed solutions are simplistic and ludicrous.
Just one aspect of this would be vast central planning committees heavily regulating Science for ‘the good of all mankind’. Yeah right. Like that’s going to work. Out of the frying plan and into the fire. The people who run these committees would inevitably pursue THEIR own immediate short term interest in whatever form that were to take.
December 16, 2024
“The tragedy of American science did not begin with the election of Donald Trump. The blustering demagogue’s assault on science, empirical reality, and rationality brought preexisting trends to the surface and made them more prominent, but they had been incubating since the end of the Second World War.”
“Knowledge is fading into irrelevance. The domination of the national conversation by clowns and charlatans has put science under siege in the United States.”
“Expecting DARPA to pursue science that is solely beneficial to humankind would be like expecting a chicken to lay a duck egg.”
“America as a Shining City on a Hill was never, right from the start, anywhere near as lovely as it appeared to be from a distance”
“The stakes have been raised to the sky, but remarkable turnabouts in the national conversation should encourage all who recognize the pivotal nature of the times we live in.”
“Knowledge is fading into irrelevance. The domination of the national conversation by clowns and charlatans has put science under siege in the United States.”
“Expecting DARPA to pursue science that is solely beneficial to humankind would be like expecting a chicken to lay a duck egg.”
“America as a Shining City on a Hill was never, right from the start, anywhere near as lovely as it appeared to be from a distance”
“The stakes have been raised to the sky, but remarkable turnabouts in the national conversation should encourage all who recognize the pivotal nature of the times we live in.”
June 8, 2025
An excellent deep dive into the corporatization and militarization of science’s many branches. The book is exceedingly thorough, well organized, and readable regardless of the reader’s level of expertise. At times the book can get overwhelming, highly specific, and repetitive, but the many examples make the points as blatantly obvious as can be.
August 26, 2022
Probably never going to shut up about this and think everyone would benefit from reading
March 5, 2021
A very well written survey of the ways in which corporate and military interests (mis)direct scientific research. Each chapter focuses on a particular connection and is concise and yet very informative.
October 7, 2020
Very broad account of American science, with sourced facts & statistics. If you're a science nerd or enjoy history even, this book will be right up your alley.
March 10, 2023
There was a time when science was explored by curious people who wanted to know how the world worked, but that innocence is gone. Public funding for R&D severely dropped after WWII, and the money for science started to come almost entirely from corporate interests who didn’t want to find a truth, but to start with a hypothesis and only pay scientists willing to curb their ethical standards enough to support the hypothesis. “Scientists on corporate payrolls are pressured to selectively report their findings by suppressing data that conflict with their patrons’ marketing plans.”
Disregard for science didn’t start with climate change denial. It was virtually created by Big Tobacco, which essentially wrote the playbook for the pharmaceutical industry, Big Oil, agriculture, and even the military. As the author demonstrates, “the tragedy of contemporary science is less about science than about economics, politics, and public relations.” E.g., Big Oil would have you believe that natural gas is clean energy, but it is itself a greenhouse gas. “An estimated thirteen million metric tons of natural gas, enough to fuel ten million homes, leaks into the atmosphere every year as it is extracted, transported, stored, processed, and distributed…What is worse is that the oil companies deliberately release tremendous amounts of methane directly into the atmosphere in a common practice called venting…Added to that is another purely wasteful practice called flaring—'the intentional burning of natural gas as companies drill faster than pipelines can move the energy away.’ According to World Bank estimates, ‘Flaring last year emitted more than 350 million tons of carbon dioxide globally, equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of almost 75 million cars.’ One Texas shale-oil producer, Exco Resources, flares away almost all of the natural gas it produces ‘even though a pipeline already exists to move it away, because it is cheaper to release the gas than pay the fees to pipe it off and sell it.’”
The chapters on academic-industry collusion in abusing science were distressing enough, but nowhere near as frightening as the section on the militarization of American science. Far, far, far more money is spent trying to find new and better ways to kill people than is spent trying to help people live better lives. I can’t even summarize what the US government has done in perverse uses of science without making myself sick.
There is a way out of the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, but in this political climate, it will never happen. Money dictates all.
Disregard for science didn’t start with climate change denial. It was virtually created by Big Tobacco, which essentially wrote the playbook for the pharmaceutical industry, Big Oil, agriculture, and even the military. As the author demonstrates, “the tragedy of contemporary science is less about science than about economics, politics, and public relations.” E.g., Big Oil would have you believe that natural gas is clean energy, but it is itself a greenhouse gas. “An estimated thirteen million metric tons of natural gas, enough to fuel ten million homes, leaks into the atmosphere every year as it is extracted, transported, stored, processed, and distributed…What is worse is that the oil companies deliberately release tremendous amounts of methane directly into the atmosphere in a common practice called venting…Added to that is another purely wasteful practice called flaring—'the intentional burning of natural gas as companies drill faster than pipelines can move the energy away.’ According to World Bank estimates, ‘Flaring last year emitted more than 350 million tons of carbon dioxide globally, equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of almost 75 million cars.’ One Texas shale-oil producer, Exco Resources, flares away almost all of the natural gas it produces ‘even though a pipeline already exists to move it away, because it is cheaper to release the gas than pay the fees to pipe it off and sell it.’”
The chapters on academic-industry collusion in abusing science were distressing enough, but nowhere near as frightening as the section on the militarization of American science. Far, far, far more money is spent trying to find new and better ways to kill people than is spent trying to help people live better lives. I can’t even summarize what the US government has done in perverse uses of science without making myself sick.
There is a way out of the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, but in this political climate, it will never happen. Money dictates all.
November 15, 2024
Quite possibly the greatest, and truly most tragic book I've read all year. In any field you look into, you find the tentacles of capitalism strangling true scientific research in the US. Nutrition, agriculture, addictive products like tobacco, pharmaceuticals and medical technology, fossil fuels, and most especially warfare. Researchers are so reliant on corporate dollars that they are incentivized to produce findings in line with what their funders want. This has led to poor or misleading nutritional advice, and the opioid crisis, among many of the damages done to the public.
Worst of all is the massive government funding of weapons of mass destruction, over and above any other category of research. The author not only notes the massive crimes the military has committed over the decades through the use of these weapons, including napalm and cluster bombs, but points out how after emerging from WW2, the government decided to continue to hold up the US economy through the continued and mostly growing funding of the weapons industry and military. Weapons factories and military bases are purposely spread out across congressional districts to make opposing military funding damaging to politicians, but also to make geographic areas dependent on that funding to support large swathes of the local economies around these facilities. In my own area, it's clear to see this. Year after year, local economists make a note of how reliant the region is on continued military spending. If this were to disappear, our local economy would collapse. But we must escape this addiction to a constant wartime economy if we ever want to see positive social change and a positive scientific community.
The author points to Cuba as a prime example of a postcapitalist country putting science to positive use. He highlights their healthcare field that has lead to some of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.
Finally, this book was published near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the final section attacks the livestock industry as being unscientific and putting profit before all other concerns, to the detriment of the entire globe. Over and over again, poultry and swine farms in particular, have led to the mutation of viruses that then wreak havoc when they jump to humans. These areas need severe regulations with teeth, or to be outright banned for the sake of global health.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It will probably depress you with how tough some of the obstacles are, but knowing where they are is a start.
Worst of all is the massive government funding of weapons of mass destruction, over and above any other category of research. The author not only notes the massive crimes the military has committed over the decades through the use of these weapons, including napalm and cluster bombs, but points out how after emerging from WW2, the government decided to continue to hold up the US economy through the continued and mostly growing funding of the weapons industry and military. Weapons factories and military bases are purposely spread out across congressional districts to make opposing military funding damaging to politicians, but also to make geographic areas dependent on that funding to support large swathes of the local economies around these facilities. In my own area, it's clear to see this. Year after year, local economists make a note of how reliant the region is on continued military spending. If this were to disappear, our local economy would collapse. But we must escape this addiction to a constant wartime economy if we ever want to see positive social change and a positive scientific community.
The author points to Cuba as a prime example of a postcapitalist country putting science to positive use. He highlights their healthcare field that has lead to some of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.
Finally, this book was published near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the final section attacks the livestock industry as being unscientific and putting profit before all other concerns, to the detriment of the entire globe. Over and over again, poultry and swine farms in particular, have led to the mutation of viruses that then wreak havoc when they jump to humans. These areas need severe regulations with teeth, or to be outright banned for the sake of global health.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It will probably depress you with how tough some of the obstacles are, but knowing where they are is a start.
August 27, 2024
I am very glad that I read this book, although it was painful at times. In fact, it was downright depressing. I see that some other reviewers have made similar statements, so I am not alone. At the beginning, it seemed like it was rehashing much of what I had read about in "Merchants of Doubt", another book about bad science foisted on the American people by commercial groups posing as true scientists and trying to create doubt on positions that are widely accepted (cigarettes do cause cancer, humans are causing climate change, etc.). But the latter part of the book is all about the power that the military has over American science, and how so much of our tax revenue is directed at terrible weapons of war. Conner spares no Presidents. He criticizes all the administrations, as they make choices to fund awful programs. He shows how the US used ex-Nazi scientists after the war to develop our space program, chemical weapons, torture techniques, etc. This part of the book was very difficult to read, although I have no reason to doubt that it is true. The overall conclusion at the end is that science needs to be nationalized and funded by the government so that the profit motive does not decide what gets worked on and what doesn't. As an ex industrial scientist myself, I can agree that we need more federal funding of science. Much science funded by corporations is not trustworthy, and corporations tend to work only on projects which could result in a big profit. For instance, less common cancers are not investigated but primarily the big four (prostate, breast, lung, and colorectal). Federal funding could ensure that orphan diseases are also investigated. I will remember this book, but it is scary and depressing.
June 17, 2024
Great politics underpin this book (but that’s totally variable person to person), and a lot of the revelations and pealing back of the curtain are excellent, but I do wish the author would spread himself a little less thin, and dig in deeper on some of the topics. I get he’s attempting to demonstrate the system wide changes necessary to fix Big Science, but I think that demonstration can be done without skimming over important topics for the sake of getting to another important topic.
December 29, 2020
We need more books like this.
January 15, 2021
Every sentence is interesting but it didn't feel dense at all (even though most of it was pretty depressing). Recommending to friends and colleagues!
September 28, 2023
A decent overview of the myriad shortcomings of scientific enterprise in the united states. Just one star off for what at times was a bit surface-level and editorial analysis.
November 21, 2022
An informative and well researched read covering the numerous ways science has been corrupted and manipulated in the USA, where capitalism reigns supreme such that profit-driven industries do not invest in products for markets that cannot pay
The first half of the book is dedicated to the misuse and exploitation of science in various industries and subject areas including tobacco, pharmaceuticals, and economic and political science
The second half of the book is focused on the military industrial complex covering important topics such as operation paperclip, the defense of Japanese war criminals during WWII for scientific gain and the immense opportunity cost from pouring billions into military research and the power they have over academic research
The first half of the book is dedicated to the misuse and exploitation of science in various industries and subject areas including tobacco, pharmaceuticals, and economic and political science
The second half of the book is focused on the military industrial complex covering important topics such as operation paperclip, the defense of Japanese war criminals during WWII for scientific gain and the immense opportunity cost from pouring billions into military research and the power they have over academic research
May 9, 2021
The author shows all the interconnected lines of corporations and government. Very scary. Lots of information but no real strategy to solve the problems of capitalism.
May 2, 2024
Only read 60%. It had a lot of great info, just had to take a break reading because it was making me too angry. Not the book but the state of the world.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews