Time, money, and history.
This essay argues that taking the economy seriously in histories of science could not only extend the range of activities studied but also change--often quite radically--our understanding of well-known cases and instances in twentieth-century science. It shows how scientific intellectuals and historians of science have followed the money as a means of critique of particular forms of science and of particular conceptions of science. It suggests the need to go further, to a much broader implicit definition of what constitutes science--one that implies a criticism of much history of twentieth-century science for defining it implicitly and inappropriately in very restrictive ways.
Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, Great Britain.
David
D
Edgerton
D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D011057:Politics; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000266:history*; D012586:Science / Q000191:economics*; D013997:Time Factors