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Donald MacKenzie follows one line of technology - strategic ballistic missile guidance through a succession of weapons systems to reveal the workings of a world that is neither awesome nor unstoppable.
Among books on the arms race, MacKenzie's (sociology, U. of Edinburgh) stands out for its welcome demystification fo the nuclear waeapons technology. MacKenzie follows one line of technology--strategic ballistic missile guidance--through a succession of weapons system to reveal the ordinary workings of a world that is neither awesome nor unstoppable. He uncovers the parameters, the pressures, and the politics that make up the complex social construction of an equally complex technology. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Mark Ork
reviewed Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance on August 11, 2019
Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped to. I think I had expected it to be a more technical account of the gyro technology and its evolution. While it did provide some detail on this and some interesting anecdotes about the challenges with manufacturing, its main focus was the politics and societal factors that drove the development of the various technologies. I shouldn't have been surprised by this fact given the title ("A Historical Sociology..."), but I had hoped for a bit more technical detail.
Given that I've read a few books and articles about the development of rocket technology for the space program and for spy satellite launches, it was quite interesting to see the overlap with the technology developed for strategic nuclear missiles.
Some of the most interesting parts of this book for me were:
* How little the fundamental gyro and accelerometer technology changed between the V2 and modern ICBMs
* The difficulty involved in knowing the initial location and orientation of the missile, and how this was addressed for various missile programs in the US and USSR for land-stationary, land-mobile, and sub-based missiles
* How much of an "art" there is to manufacturing inertial systems for strategic nuclear weapons, and the difficulties of scaling the lab-developed systems to a deployable system.
* The politics around ICBM accuracy both domestically and internationally (the core focus of the book)
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Add Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance, Among books on the arms race, Donald MacKenzie's stands out for its welcome demystification of the black box of nuclear weapons technology. MacKenzie follows one line of technology - strategic ballistic missile guidance - through a succession of weapons, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance, Among books on the arms race, Donald MacKenzie's stands out for its welcome demystification of the black box of nuclear weapons technology. MacKenzie follows one line of technology - strategic ballistic missile guidance - through a succession of weapons, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance to your collection on WonderClub |
