Science, Money, and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion

by Daniel S. Greenberg

Each year, Congress appropriates billions of dollars for scientific research. In this book, veteran science reporter Daniel S. Greenberg takes us behind closed doors to show us who gets it, and why. What he reveals is an overlooked world of false claims, pork, and cronyism, where science, money, and politics all manipulate one another.

Genres: Science, Politics, Nonfiction, Political Science

528 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2001

About the author

Daniel S. Greenberg was an American journalist, editor, and author covering science and politics.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Daniel Greenberg seems to be extremely bitter and cynical after writing about the scientific enterprise for 40 years. In spite of the overwhelmingly negative tone of the book, he still addressed important criticisms of the scientific community that most proponents would not like to admit.

One of his main critiques is that although scientists constantly complain about a lack of funding, science and medicine have experienced an unprecedented boom in governmental support since WWII. Even in tough economic times, the NSF and especially the NIH, have received ever higher budgets. Moreover, these increases in funding do not ameliorate the crises in support for post-docs and early career scientists, but rather exacerbate them as research institutions recruit more and more cheap labor to conduct their studies.

p164 After Nixon, the scientists who served in the White House harbored no noble delusions about loyalty to values that transcend politics and presidents. After Nixon, humbler political behavior prevailed in the senior ranks of science politics.

p231 The anti-evolutionists are godsends for the missionaries of science education, providing them the pretext for another surge of doom-mongering.

p372 "I must warn you that the generous support you enjoy today was part of the fallout of the creation of nuclear weapons, not because of the great contributions of science to a more humane society."

[Riley Holmes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author takes a disdainful tone, but has many interesting stories that seem to justify it. In this book, scientists are the more annoying group than the "ignorant public".

Great inside look at politics of government funding for research agencies.

[Elizabeth]

As reviewed by Steven Shapin in the 25 Sep 2008 issue of Nature (the 2008 US election special issue).

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well written, fascinating, but definitely slanted. Read it with an open mind to learn a lot of neat facts about the history of science policy in the US, but be ready to fact-check and question what Greenberg writes.