Andrew Jewett

I went back and forth on how I wanted to rate this book, after going back and forth on whether I even wanted to bother with finishing it. In the first place, the cover is a little misleading, and this book is not really about the fear of technology. What it's really about is, on one hand, the resentment of religious and humanist figures on what was seen as the challenge to their cultural authority by social science and psychology. On the other, it's about how "SCIENCE," in neon lights became show more a stand-in for the perceived ills of mass society and big government.

This is all well and good, but another issue here is that each chapter reads like one run-on sentence, and there is something of a passive-aggressive quality to the whole book. It makes you wonder whether you're actually learning anything.

Probably the best way to approach this monograph is to read the introduction and the conclusion and then dip into the chapters that look most interesting. One of the pluses of this book is that the author does radiate a certain earnest sincerity. Ironically, speaking of distrust of science, Jewett did step away from physics because he really didn't want to serve the military-industrial complex as a young man. Two, what Jewett would really like to see is that scientists, as a group, break out of the pose of "disinterest" that public criticism often forces them into, and adopt a stance of engagement, as the best approach to dealing with the down-right dumb and dishonest elements that afflict debates over the role of science and technology in contemporary society. show less