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Title: Inventing Accuracy: An Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance by Donald A. MacKenzie ISBN: 0-262-13258-3 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1990 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $37.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Change Your Way of Thinking
Comment: This is a hallmark book, and not solely to those interested in the history of ballistic missile guidance systems (though it would be difficult for others to discover). Mr. MacKenzie's real contribution is to examine how theories compete, contend and clash, and how the "intellectual community" finds and/or accepts them. A careful reading of the book, with only a modicum of knowledge of the subject, could change the way one thinks about every aspect of life.
I found it brilliant and revelatory, and I have recommended it to many people who sought to have their conceptual conciousness raised, as was mine.
One of the few scholarly journals this "academaholic" would ever recommend to a general (though well-read) audience.
Keep a copy around for some deserving late teen ager whose mind is in full bloom - you will find yourself rewarded.
Rating: 5
Summary: Historical Sociology
Comment: This book is regarded as groundbraking in nonproliferation circles. It describes invention and the institutions supporting invention.
This book describes the ideologies and nuclear strategies during the Cold War in an excellent way. And it has to. Because it tries to find an alternative to the prevailing perception of technological determism and realism. Historical Sosiology.
I found this book very difficult to read. The language is "scientific" and loaded with information. I will not recommend this book to the casual reader, but for history buffs in nuclear strategy, it is a must.
Rating: 4
Summary: Recommended for Targeteers by nervegas.com
Comment: This is one of those very odd specialty books that always has you wondering who is the real audience.
The author has done an excellent job of researching the topic, and appears to be from the missile guidance community (or at least aerospace). His style is dry, but frank.
The book traces the US experience in missile guidance technology, then analyzes the sequence of RFP to field test to reveal the sociological dynamics of a technology.
For the information revolution, and a society that is becoming increasingly more technological, this book is an early example of what will likely be reproduced elsewhere for other technologies.
Throughout the book, the author debates what is accuracy. Traditionally, the Circular Error Probability (CEP) has been used, but some believe that a bias displaces the actual aiming point, and thus reduces the meaning of the CEP. Not addressed in this book is the debate concerning intelligence assets to support deep and strategic strikes, which accounts for many peoples belief in an accuracy bias. The author's bias arguement is along different lines than that used today, and is not well developed (the author argues against it).
The arguement being addressed is how credible is a nuclear deterent if systems are perfected to hit a test target on a Pacific island where all the navigational variables are known. This arguement is revisited by more recent books dealing with smart weapons; weapons which contractually meet their requirements to hit targets in arid Nevada, but appear incapable of doing likewise in a misty European battlefields.
The author does present an interesting sociological model that has a wide application: the certainty trough. This model implies that those with the greatest confidence in a technology are well informed on it, and between those that develop the technology, and those that know little about it.
While dealing only with strategic ballistic missiles, the author's approach to technological sociology is well worth reading and applying to current day arguements with other weapon systems.
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Title: Rescuing Prometheus: Four Monumental Projects That Changed the Modern World by Thomas P. Hughes ISBN: 0679739386 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 14 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $11.96 |
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Title: The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America (Inside Technology) by Paul N. Edwards ISBN: 0262550288 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Chemical and Biological Warfare: A Comprehensive Survey for the Concerned Citizen by Eric Croddy, Clarisa Perez-Armendariz, John Hart ISBN: 0387950761 Publisher: Copernicus Books Pub. Date: 15 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939-1956 by David Holloway ISBN: 0300066643 Publisher: Yale University Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1995 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge by Steven Epstein ISBN: 0520214455 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.15 |
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