The Doomsday Lobby – Hype and Panic from Sputniks, Martians and Marauding Meteors by James T. Bennett; Copernicus Books/Springer; New York, New York; $24.95; (soft cover); 2010.
I think you’ll find this scholarly book of value – and somewhat surprising in its discourse.
Bennett has written an engrossing tale of how government dollars are used to stoke the fires of campaigns that urge U.S. lawmakers as well as taxpayers to consider spaceborne paranoia – be it Sputnik-like challenges, incoming asteroids, or global warming.
This book will strike a nerve in readers, be it as assurance, or perhaps push the controversial button. Either way, it’s all thought-thinking prose.
The author is a George Mason University professor and asks whether or not we entrust the federal government with the direction of American science. He suggests that the time is right for another look at the virtues of private science.
This tightly written book includes chapters on Sputnik – how educators prospered from Sputnik 1’s launch back in 1957, as well as Chicken Little rhetoric about near Earth objects (NEO’s) and the sky is falling feeling.
Beware of “threat makers” the author warns. Given the swelling budget deficit “whose size may soon dwarf the rockiest chunks in the asteroid belt” – be careful of hysteria.
You’ll find this book a load-leveler in terms of space threats – one that looks into the pipeline of federal dollars into space scenarios that, as the author notes, might be more paranoia that reality. Can government dollars corrupt scientific inquiry?
“For fiction in the service of science is an old story in the annals of government-building,” argues Bennett. He notes that “like oil and water, politics and science do not mix well.”
All in all, this book looks at the popular press and culture, written in an appealing style that will jell with a broad gamut of readers.
This book adds to the national dialogue about the value of space science and exploration, albeit a challenging and controversial look. Still, well worth the read and may well add to your inbox of inquiry about today’s space program direction.
For more information, go to:
http://www.springer.com/new+%26+forthcoming+titles+%28default%29/book/978-1-4419-6684-1
By Leonard David