IMPROVING society by the practical application of scientific knowledge is a laudable goal. So why does calling it social engineering have such an ominous ring? A straw poll among my friends yields associations such as Hitler, eugenics, mind control and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Social engineering’s bad name is based on more than dictators and dark visions of the future, however.
As historian and anthropologist Rebecca Lemov shows in World as Laboratory, it is firmly rooted in the development of the social sciences in the US during the first half of the 20th century. Her book tells…
