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Science and Government
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Science and Government is a gripping account of one of the great scientific rivalries of the twentieth century. The antagonists are Sir Henry Tizard, a chemist from Imperial College, and Frederick Lindemann (Lord Cherwell), a physicist from the University of Oxford. The scientist-turned-novelist Charles Percy Snow tells a story of hatred and ambition at the top of British
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Paperback, 135 pages
Published
March 11th 2013
by Harvard University Press
(first published 1961)
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Jun 25, 2020
Feliks
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A reflective and pondering rumination on a not-very-well-known backroom political drama which took place in Britain during WWII. It intrigues because it is at one-and-the-same-time, so obscure --and also so influential in its having determined the course of modern life.
C.P. Snow is an unusual author --himself, a government figure also in the war --and a man of keen, discriminating acumen. You may mark him well --and with enjoyment --for the clear, lucid language with which he conveys his ideas a ...more
C.P. Snow is an unusual author --himself, a government figure also in the war --and a man of keen, discriminating acumen. You may mark him well --and with enjoyment --for the clear, lucid language with which he conveys his ideas a ...more
An interesting lecture and history lesson on what can happen when there is too much reliance on one person for scientific advice. Snow wants to point out the dangers of too much reliance from non-scientist policy makers on a single scientist, and, in general, how secret decisions are made by governments inevitably by a small number of people.
Snow uses a parable of Sir Henry Tizard and Lord Cherwell (Lindemann), where Tizard showed good instincts and judgments on how to allocate resources during ...more
Snow uses a parable of Sir Henry Tizard and Lord Cherwell (Lindemann), where Tizard showed good instincts and judgments on how to allocate resources during ...more
If you want one brief, sharp look at how scientific expertise makes its way (or doesn't) into the political process, this isn't a bad place to start. I didn't learn much new here--I wrote my thesis on the general topic, and the specific case described is fairly obscure--but it's a well-told tale, and a good example of the general "process."
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“What will people of the future think of us? Will they say, as Roger Williams said of some of the Massachusetts Indians, that we were wolves with the minds of men? Will they think that we resigned our humanity? They will have that right.”
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