Table of Contents

Introduction

1 The Personal, the Political, and the Scientific

2 Seeing the Ocean through Operational Eyes: The Stommel-Arons Model of Abyssal Circulation

3 Whose Science Is It Anyway? The Woods Hole Palace Revolt

4 Stymied by Secrecy: Harry Hess and Seafloor Spreading

5 The Iron Curtain of Classification: What Difference Did It Make?

6 Why the Navy Built Alvin

7 Painting Projects White: The Discovery of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents

8 From Expertise to Advocacy: The Seabed Disposal of Radioactive Waste

9 Changing the Mission: From the Cold War to Climate Change

Conclusion: The Context of Motivation
  Acknowledgments
Sources and Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Naomi Oreskes is professor of the history of science at Harvard University. She is the author of many books, including Merchants of Doubt and, most recently, Why Trust Science?

Reviews

"This book shows why oceanography may be the vital science whose history we need to understand if we want a picture of the evolving relationships between science and the American state over the last century. With her characteristic but rare combination of philosophical and historical insight, and her sharp eye for the politics beneath the surface, Oreskes has skillfully interpreted the wide-ranging legacies of oceanography, and brought them into our understanding of scientific--and political--debates of the present day."--Katharine Anderson, York University