ade. Again, he makes no apologies for subjectivity; instead, he begins his study with the enthusiasm of a scholar participant about to relive a favorite part of the past.
One of the most outstanding elements of Another Part of the Fifties is the author's description of the scientist. The fifties intensified the public's "paradoxical and contradictory" image of the man of science (274). The scientist who applied his knowledge to give us the transistor radio was "good," whereas the theoretician who applied his mind to atomic power might sell his secrets to the Russians. The nuclear scientist was rated low in public prestige in the fifties. In the sixties, they would be ranked third, "ahead of everybody except doctors and Supreme Court justices" (274).
In spite of the public's distrust of the atomic scientist in the fifties, Eisenhower held several nuclear experts in top government councils during his second term. The author praises Eisenhower for this, and notes that such influence was healthy:
In their factual fashion these government scientists countered some of the "wilder fantasies and scare talk" then being propagated by the aerospace industry and voiced in high gov
...