Armed with Expertise: The Militarization of American Social Research during the Cold War

Free and open to the public.
Reception and book signing to follow.

About the book
Armed with Expertise: The Militarization of American Social Research during the Cold War
During the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon launched a controversial counterinsurgency program called the Human Terrain System. The program embedded social scientists within military units to provide commanders with information about the cultures and grievances of local populations. Yet the controversy it inspired was not new. Decades earlier, similar national security concerns brought the Department of Defense and American social scientists together in the search for intellectual weapons that could combat the spread of communism during the Cold War. In Armed with Expertise, Joy Rohde traces the optimistic rise, anguished fall, and surprising rebirth of Cold War–era military-sponsored social research.

About the event
With remarks from Dean of the Ford School Susan Collins and Gabrielle Hecht
Joy Rohde will remark on major points of the book and answer questions from the audience.

Following the talk, copies of Armed with Expertise will be available for purchase and signing by the author.

The Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy is proud to host this book talk as one of the highlights of the school's year-long centennial celebrations. The event is co-sponsored by the Science, Technology, and Society program at the University of Michigan.
 

• Joy Rohde