STS 6234 Advanced Topics in the History of Science and Technology:
Critical Issues in 20th Century Military Technology
[tentative – 1 June 2005]
Time, meeting location TBD
Instructor: Shannon A. Brown (202) 685-4388
email: sbrown3@verizon.net
Course Overview and Objective:
In this seminar course, we will examine significant works of scholarship on modern military
technology. The readings will focus on the United States and Europe since the mid-nineteenth
century. Scholarly approaches to and interpretations of the study of weapons; institutional
innovation; technology and doctrine; and society and warfare will serve as points of review,
analysis, and discussion for the class. Readings will be drawn from technology history,
international affairs, policy studies, anthropology, sociology, and the history of medicine.
The objective of the course is to familiarize advanced STS graduate students with core readings
on the history of military technology to give them an awareness of the multitude of academic
approaches that have been employed to interpret relationships between society and military
institutions against a historical backdrop of technological change.
Course Requirements:
Students will be required to submit two papers for credit during this semester. The first
paper will be a bibliographic essay that explores a specific topic of military STS,
describing the major academic works, summarizing the arguments that define the field.
You should write between 12 and 15 pages. There is no limit to the number of books and
articles that should be included in your bibliographic essay, but you should select works
that are representative of the scholarship on the subject and can be given a fair treatment
within the established page limit.
The second paper will be an analytical work that addresses a military STS topic. Later in
the term, I will provide you with a more detailed requirements list for this assignment.
All students will be responsible for keeping up with the course reading. Your
participation grades will be based on informal readings presentations (assigned to
individuals the week prior) and open discussion.
Grading:
30% attendance and participation
35% bibliographic essay (12-15 pages)
35% analytical essay (12-15 pages)
STS 6234
Revised syllabus 3/10/05
Required Books (in order of use):
Daniel Pick, War Machine: The Rationalisation of Slaughter in the Machine Age
H. Bruce Franklin, War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination
Stephen Peter Rosen, Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military
Stephen L. McFarland, America’s Pursuit of Precision Bombing, 1910-1945
Fred Kaplan, Wizards of Armageddon
Stuart W. Leslie, The Cold War and American Science
McNaugher, New Weapons, Old Politics: America’s Military Procurement Muddle
Scott Sagan, The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons
Donald McKenzie, Inventing Accuracy
Hugh Gusterson, Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War
Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
Handouts TBD
Topic and Reading Schedule
(Reading assignments are subject to change; assignments marked “TBD” will be
announced in class several weeks before discussion.
Week 1
Introduction and Course Overview
Week 2
Culture and Military Technology: Human Expectations and Mechanical Means
Readings:
Pick, War Machine
Week 3
Military Technology and the Modern Imagination
Readings:
Franklin, War Stars
Week 4
Military Medicine
Readings:
Sturdy, “War As Experiment. Physiology, Innovation, and Administration in Britain,
1914-1918: The Case of Chemical Warfare” (handout)
Neushul, “Fighting Research: Army Participation in the Clinical Testing and Mass
Production of Penicillin During the Second World War”
Cooter, Medicine and Modern Warfare (excerpts – handout)
Cooter, Surgery and Society in Peace and War (excerpts – handout)
Week 5
The Innovation Imperative
Readings:
STS 6234
Revised syllabus 3/10/05
Rosen, Winning the Next War
Week 6
Technology and Doctrine
Readings:
Kaplan, Wizards of Armageddon
Week 7
Technological Artifacts and Military Institutions
Readings:
McFarland, America’s Pursuit of Precision Bombing
Week 8
Science and the Military
Readings:
Leslie, Cold War and American Science
Week 9
Ethics and Military Technology
Readings:
[TBD]
Week 10
Research and Development
Readings:
[TBD]
DUE: BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY
Week 11
Managing Military Technology
Readings:
Sagan, The Limits of Safety
Week 12
Managing Military Technology (con’t)
Readings:
MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy
Week 13
Weapons Acquisition
McNaugher, New Weapons, Old Politics
Week 14
Exploring Opposing Viewpoints
Gusterson, Nuclear Rites
STS 6234
Revised syllabus 3/10/05
DUE: ANALYTICAL ESSAY
Week 15
Commentary Through Fiction
Haldeman, The Forever War
STS 6234
Revised syllabus 3/10/05