About the Author

Seth Shulman is an award-winning journalist and author who has written for many magazines, including Nature, Smithsonian, the Atlantic, Discover, Rolling Stone, Parade, and Popular Science; and for newspapers including, the Times of London, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of books including The Threat at Home: Confronting the Toxic Legacy of the U.S. Military.

Reviews

"Exhaustively sourced and researched, Shulman's book leaves no doubt that the integrity of government research is under attack.... A work of timely muckraking." - Discover Magazine "A concise, straightforward case history of the politicization of science." - Nature "Combining thorough research with lucid prose and a sense of mounting outrage... these tales of manipulation, intimidation and deception make for disquieting reading." - Publishers Weekly"

"Exhaustively sourced and researched, Shulman's book leaves no doubt that the integrity of government research is under attack.... A work of timely muckraking." - Discover Magazine "A concise, straightforward case history of the politicization of science." - Nature "Combining thorough research with lucid prose and a sense of mounting outrage... these tales of manipulation, intimidation and deception make for disquieting reading." - Publishers Weekly"

Writing at the request of the Union of Concerned Scientists, science journalist Shulman (The Threat at Home: Confronting the Toxic Legacy of the U.S. Military) here describes an extensive effort maintained throughout the George W. Bush administration to block and/or seriously distort the research findings of many government-supported scientists. This suppression campaign evidently extends across a broad range of subjects, including global warming, mercury pollution, sundry medical issues (e.g., stem-cell research), an alleged Iraqi nuclear weapons effort, and environmental lead poisoning. In numerous instances, political appointees with no scientific background have rewritten reports submitted by professional scientists. In other cases, highly credentialed scientists nominated for advisory boards have been rejected on political grounds. Shulman might have strengthened his argument further had he shown how the current administration has differed in this area from previous administrations of both major political parties. Even so, he has produced a convincing and frightening demonstration of the Bush administration's perversion of scientific facts and advice. Recommended. [Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science also investigates this issue.-Ed.]-Jack W. Weigel, Ann Arbor, MI Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.