The Discordant Image: Metaphors, Mentality, and the Diagnosis of Human Failure February 11, 2012
Posted by Will Thomas in Operations Research.Tags: Curtis LeMay, David Brooks, Errol Morris, George Lakoff, George Will, Jacob Bronowski, James C. Scott, John Dower, Michael Sherry, Paul Edwards, Robert McNamara
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Earlier this year, Alex Wellerstein posted at his terrific new blog, Restricted Data, about the use of liquid metaphors to describe how information spreads (it “flows”, “leaks”, etc.), and historians’ analysis of metaphors in general. It got me thinking again about an image I’ve run across in my archival research that has long fascinated me, but that probably won’t make it into anything I publish:
My fascination with the image arises from the nature of the document in which I found it: “Analysis of Incendiary Phase of Operations, 9-19 March 1945,” a summary report prepared by Maj.-Gen. Curtis LeMay’s staff in the XXI Bomber Command (from Folder 3, Box 37, Papers of Curtis E. LeMay, Library of Congress, Washington, DC).
On the Beeb: Lisa Jardine on Jacob Bronowski December 12, 2010
Posted by Will Thomas in Uncategorized.Tags: Jacob Bronowski, Lisa Jardine, Ralph Desmarais
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Update. Apparently the film is now available for a further week, through the 23rd
One position I hold on this blog is that historians need to worry less about their engagement with the realm of public ideas. The main reason I hold this position is that I think there is a tendency — albeit by no means a necessary one — to measure the quality of professional work in term of what qualities it possesses that public ideas lack, rather than against its own internal standards. Another important reason, though, is that I am generally satisfied with the quality of public presentation of science and its history. Yes, there is much that is of low quality, but nothing I or my colleagues say is going to change that. In fact, though, here in the UK, rather good history of science seems to be in the media perhaps even more often than the subject actually warrants!
Lisa Jardine, notably, seems to be a very public figure, and, in general, I am a fan. (I thought this column for bbc.co.uk, wherein she argues that history “reminds us” that real people can get hurt by things, contrary to what budget-cutting politicians may think, was a particularly superficial case for the relevance of history.) My new fun fact learned this past week is that Jardine is the daughter of Jacob Bronowski. Bronowski was a mathematician who is best known for popular television programs on science, most notably The Ascent of Man. She has just made a film about him for the BBC entitled My Father, The Bomb, and Me, which is available online here — but only until December 16th, so hurry! (I’m not sure if it’s available outside the UK.) The video below is a hopefully more permanent clip of Bronowski, which I will discuss in conjunction with Jardine’s film after the jump.
Ether Wave Propaganda 