No professional group in the United States benefited more from
World War II than the scientific community. After the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, scientists enjoyed
unprecedented public visibility and political influence as a new
elite whose expertise now seemed critical to America's future. But
as the United States grew committed to Cold War conflict with the
Soviet Union and the ideology of anticommunism came to dominate
American politics, scientists faced an increasingly vigorous
regimen of security and loyalty clearances as well as the threat of
intrusive investigations by the notorious House Committee on
Un-American Activities and other government bodies.
This book is the first major study of American scientists'
encounters with Cold War anticommunism in the decade after World
War II. By examining cases of individual scientists subjected to
loyalty and security investigations, the organizational response of
the scientific community to political attacks, and the
relationships between Cold War ideology and postwar science policy,
Jessica Wang demonstrates the stifling effects of anticommunist
ideology on the politics of science. She exposes the deep divisions
over the Cold War within the scientific community and provides a
complex story of hard choices, a community in crisis, and roads not
taken.