Research Catalog

Title

The new know-nothings : the political foes of the scientific study of human nature / Morton Hunt.

Author

Hunt, Morton M., 1920-2016.

Publication

New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction, [1999], ©1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 404 pages; 23 cm

Summary

• In recent years, political, religious, and other special-interest groups have waged war on behavioral and social research projects that threaten their interests and values. They have hounded researchers out of universities, cut off their funding through congressional and state legislative pressure, and harassed them with public demonstrations and picketing, all in the hope of forcing them to abandon their research.
• Morton Hunt gives us the first serious overview of this threat to behavioral and social science research. He illustrates precisely how scientific research has been subjected to political attack. The New Know-Nothings illustrates this phenomenon using in-depth case histories and background discussions of the conflicting social forces involved. It considers the prevalence of each form of opposition to research, using interviews with expert observers in the sciences and government.
• Hunt reviews the nature-nurture debate, biological contributions to gender differences, conservative opposition to sex research in the schools, the debate over the controlled drinking approach to alcoholism, animal rights versus scientists' rights to use animals in research, the controversy over day care, anthropological research needs versus the Native American repatriation of remains, and other cases. He argues that beyond the specific projects targeted, the most important thing threatened is the social valuation of scientific freedom.
• It will be of interest to behavioral scientists and scientists in general, readers interested in the sciences and in social issues, and government policymakers.

Subjects

• Psychology > Research > Political aspects
• Psychology > Research > Political aspects > Case studies
• Politics
• Behavioral Sciences
• Research
• Social Sciences
• Behavioral Research
• Social sciences > Research > Political aspects > Case studies

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 375-394) and index.

Contents

1. A Clear and Present Danger -- Pt. 1. Attacks from the Left. 2. The Roots of Illiberal Liberalism. 3. The IQ Wars. 4. Anatomy Is Destiny. 5. Unmapped Country: Genetic Influences on Behavior -- Pt. 2. Attacks from the Right. 6. Keeping Sex a Mystery. 7. Just Say No. 8. The War Against Social Science Research -- Pt. 3. Attacks from Points in Between. 9. The Assault on Memory Research. 10. Harming Harm-Reduction Research. 11. Unhand That Rat, You Rat! 12. A Miscellany of Assaults on Research. Epilogue: The Boundaries of Freedom of Research: Second Thoughts.

ISBN

• 1560003936 (hardcover : alk. paper)
• 0765804972 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

98028985

OCLC

ocm39484936

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries