How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind - The Strange Career of Cold War Rationality

How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind - The Strange Career of Cold War Rationality by Paul Erickson


ISBN
9780226324159
Published
Binding
Paperback
Pages
272
Dimensions
154 x 229 x 16mm

In the United States at the height of the Cold War, roughly between the end of World War II and the early 1980s, a new project of redefining rationality commanded the attention of sharp minds, powerful politicians, wealthy foundations, and top military brass. Its home was the human sciences-psychology, sociology, political science, and economics, among others-and its participants enlisted in an intellectual campaign to figure out what rationality should mean and how it could be deployed. How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind brings to life the people-Herbert Simon, Oskar Morgenstern, Herman Kahn, Anatol Rapoport, Thomas Schelling, and many others-and places, including the RAND Corporation, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Cowles Commission for Research and Economics, and the Council on Foreign Relations, that played a key role in putting forth a "Cold War rationality." Decision makers harnessed this picture of rationality-optimizing, formal, algorithmic, and mechanical-in their quest to understand phenomena as diverse as economic transactions, biological evolution, political elections, international relations, and military strategy. The authors chronicle and illuminate what it meant to be rational in the age of nuclear brinkmanship.
EOFY 2025 Book Frenzy
45.89
RRP: $53.99
15% off RRP


This product is unable to be ordered online. Please check in-store availability.
Instore Price: $53.99
Enter your Postcode or Suburb to view availability and delivery times.

You might also like

All About Love
bell hooks
27.99
23.79
15% Off
Mean Streak
35.99
29.99
17% Off

RRP refers to the Recommended Retail Price as set out by the original publisher at time of release.
The RRP set by overseas publishers may vary to those set by local publishers due to exchange rates and shipping costs.
Due to our competitive pricing, we may have not sold all products at their original RRP.