Among the many effects of the Cold War was a profound reconfiguration of the disciplines, institutions, and practices used to understand the Earth. With the advent of warfare on a planetary scale the earth sciences proved indispensable in shaping national strategies and identifying the unseen potential of technological innovation. Cartography, weather forecasting, and geological surveys had long been staples of government patronage in the USA as well as in Europe. All were easily reconcilable with the state's need for accurate and useful knowledge of its dominion and either the expansion or defense of a nation's boundaries. The Cold War added geophysics, oceanography, seismology, and similar fields to the state's arsenal of understanding. Despite their rather obvious usefulness, the earth sciences have received little of the attention historians of science and technology lavish upon the physical sciences and engineering disciplines during the Cold War. One reason lies in the relative novelty of the historiography of Cold War science and technology. Another lies in the paucity of historians specializing in the histories of geology, geophysics, meteorology, and oceanography. A third, and far more interesting, reason might lie in the very nature of these field-oriented disciplines. What makes the field sciences distinctive is that they take place in spaces that are neither easily contained nor controlled. Nonetheless, the need to control and explain those spaces drives much of the research. As students of the atmosphere, the earth, and the oceans, the practitioners of these particular field sciences have a much lower status than the physicists who dominate the weaponeer culture of Cold War USA. Ironically, these little-studied practitioners were perhaps as important as the famous weapons designers in achieving national ends during the long struggle.
展开▼
