Cold War Science
MIT's OpenCourseWare seminar traces how the Cold War reshaped American science between the 1940s and the 1990s. It follows scientists into new political roles, from nuclear-age policy advisors to targets of anti-Communist investigations, and examines how funding, secrecy, and government partnership changed the institutions running physics and the social sciences. Readings and discussion topics cover the atomic bomb's aftermath, the rise of big science and federal laboratories, and the epistemic effects of Cold War priorities on what counted as legitimate knowledge. The course closes by considering science's place after the Cold War ended. Materials include the full syllabus, weekly reading assignments, and discussion questions as published by MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access with no certificate offered. It suits students interested in how political pressure and institutional funding can shape the questions a field of science is allowed to ask.