Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance (Paperback)

~ Robert Proctor (Editor), Londa Schiebinger (Editor)
Key Phrases: fossil legends, chris mooney, epistemic cultures, New York, United States, Marshall Institute (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Anyone who thinks ignorance is nobodys business has a lot to learn from these provocative essays. The distinguished authors offer compelling evidence that what we do not know is every bit as much a product of human choice and ingenuity as what we choose to know. Agnotology rescues ignorance from the no-mans-land of unexamined social phenomena. It makes us ask what is at stake when we dont know things that are plainly before our eyes. This is a book for every thinking citizen."
—Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard University

"In the past years there have been few new fields of research as timely as agnotology. Many a time one is puzzled by the widespread ignorance of some of the greatest challenges mankind faces today, be it global warming, the way to the Iraq war, or the global tobacco epidemic. Agnotology might very well be the tool to delve into the great black holes of modern knowledge and also find a way out." —Andrian Kreye, arts and ideas editor, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany

Product Description

What don't we know, and why don't we know it? What keeps ignorance alive, or allows it to be used as a political instrument? Agnotology—the study of ignorance—provides a new theoretical perspective to broaden traditional questions about "how we know" to ask: Why don't we know what we don't know? The essays assembled in Agnotology show that ignorance is often more than just an absence of knowledge; it can also be the outcome of cultural and political struggles. Ignorance has a history and a political geography, but there are also things people don't want you to know ("Doubt is our product" is the tobacco industry slogan). Individual chapters treat examples from the realms of global climate change, military secrecy, female orgasm, environmental denialism, Native American paleontology, theoretical archaeology, racial ignorance, and more. The goal of this volume is to better understand how and why various forms of knowing do not come to be, or have disappeared, or have become invisible.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press (May 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804759014
• ISBN-13: 978-0804759014
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #494,130 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, July 13, 2009

By	Jos Pols - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Nutshell review - This book is about ignorance; its various types, the making of it and the exploitation of it. The book contains a number of essays by different authors on various subjects from the tobacco industry to environmentalism to the military and shows how ignorance is used and abused. Often ignorance is manufactured to divide and conquer, or to impede decision making, or simply to keep information secret. Ignorance can be created by the wholesale destruction of existing knowledge, sometimes by historical accident and sometimes on purpose. Although at times not the easiest to read material each essay does contain extensive notes and references for anyone wishing to study the subject further.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Money Talks, April 30, 2009

By	born rich "born rich" (Ohio) - See all my reviews

You always knew that vested interests made sure you got the story they wanted you to hear.Unfortunately,even more examples than you were aware of are out there.Here they are.This book is a good place to start if you want to be even more upset than you already are.