The Man Who Shocked The World: The Life And Legacy Of Stanley Milgram (Hardcover)

by Thomas Blass (Author) "STANLEY MILGRAM WAS born in the Bronx on August 15, 1933, to Samuel and Adele Milgram, both Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe..." (more)
Key Phrases: obedience research, proximity series, obedience experiments, New York, Graduate Center, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In the early 1960s, Stanley Milgram conducted a series offamous experiments proving that average citizens would readily inflictpainful electric shocks on strangers if they were instructed orencouraged to do so by an authority figure. This biography byUniversity of Maryland professor Blass provides a valuable examinationMilgram’s work and his contributions to the field of socialpsychology. Blass discusses Milgram’s education and career choicesfrom the mid-1950s to the ’70s. He talks at length about thescientist’s training and experiences at Queens College and at Harvard,and about his teaching and research appointments at universities suchas Princeton, Yale and the City University of New York. He describesin great—at times exhausting—detail the controversialexperiments Milgram devised and conducted over the years. And heconsiders how Milgram’s research changed the way "we thinkabout…the role of moral principles in social life." Milgram’spersonal life, however, gets the short shrift in thisnarration. References to the psychologist’s use of cocaine, marijuanaand mescaline are brief and undeveloped; mentions of his wife, Sasha,and their children, Michele and Marc, seem somewhat perfunctory. Thisinattention to matters of personality may limit the book’saudience. But, as the first comprehensive biography of Milgram,Blass’s study nonetheless remains an important contribution to thefield of science history. 8 pages of b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
Questioning Authority

Nearly half a century after they were first conducted, psychologist Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments still rank among the most important studies ever conducted in social psychology. In 1961 as a young professor at Yale, Milgram demonstrated that ordinary people would willingly inflict what they believed were increasingly painful electric shocks on strangers if ordered to do so by someone in a position of authority. Because they occurred and were widely publicized around the time of the trial of Adolph Eichmann, the implementer of the Nazis' Final Solution who insisted he was merely following orders, Milgram's groundbreaking experiments received worldwide attention.

The studies were controversial and remain so, largely because they involved deception (the shocks were fake, and the subjects who received them were actors). But they continue to resonate today because of how strikingly they illustrate individuals' willingness to subjugate their own judgment to that of authority figures.

As University of Maryland psychology professor Thomas Blass makes clear in his highly readable biography The Man Who Shocked the World (Basic, $26), Milgram's far-reaching influence in the world of psychology extends beyond the obedience experiments. It was Milgram, a creative, mercurial, dynamic rebel of protean talents -- he also made films and was involved in television production -- who originated the concept of "six degrees of separation." Before his death in 1984 of a heart attack at age 51, he also advanced the notion of the "familiar stranger" in urban life -- a person recognized because of repeated sightings, say, on the subway, but with whom one never actually interacts.

While Blass's book is not very enlightening on what made Milgram tick, his lucid discussion of the scientist's most important and controversial work and its implications is trenchant and provocative.

A Shot Under Suspicion

In a 1796 experiment that would break today's ethical rules, British physician Edward Jenner inoculated an unsuspecting 8-year-old boy with cowpox extracted from a milkmaid's sores. Once the boy recovered from this mild infection, Jenner exposed him to smallpox, correctly surmising that he would be protected by his previous exposure.

Vaccine -- from vacca, the Latin word for cow -- is the name Jenner gave to his new discovery. Today, vaccines protect against a spectrum of diseases that once claimed millions of lives. Ongoing research fuels the hope that they will one day prevent HIV, Ebola virus and other deadly infections. But like all medical interventions, vaccines are not without risk. In 1986, Congress passed the National Childhood Injury Protection Act to protect vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits.

In The Virus and the Vaccine: The True Story of a Cancer-Causing Monkey Virus, Contaminated Polio Vaccine, and the Millions of Americans Exposed (St. Martin's, $25.95), science writers Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher contend that public health officials ignored suspicions that the polio vaccines, especially the live vaccine developed by Jonas Salk, were contaminated with a cancer-causing virus now known as SV40. Between 1954 and 1963, an estimated 100 millions Americans were inoculated with this vaccine.

In sometimes breathless prose, the authors outline a scientific conspiracy and coverup. They find scientists and public health officials "firmly entrenched in the dogma about SV40" and unwilling to consider the possibility that the contaminated vaccine could be responsible for some existing cancer cases and a ticking time bomb for more.

Yet science is rarely so simple, and scientists are not often so neatly divided. While SV40 is linked to development of some tumors (as are several other viruses), much remains to be unraveled about its exact role and whether human exposure to the virus occurs largely from polio vaccine. At a 2002 meeting on SV40 convened by the National Academy of Sciences, researchers reported that multiple epidemiological studies have failed to link use of the vaccines and increased rates of cancer. The role of SV40 is still being determined.

No doubt the development of the polio vaccines and SV40 is a story worth telling. But what The Virus and the Vaccine illustrates best is the rapid advancement of scientific knowledge and the need for scientists -- as well as science writers -- to keep open minds and to stay focused on the evidence at hand.

Impure Science

For all the purity and high-mindedness scientists claim for themselves and their work, they inhabit a realm no less subject to human folly and vicious competition than any other part of society. And in science, as elsewhere, the losers tend to be those less equipped to play the game.

In The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle (Henry Holt, $25), journalist and biographer Eric Lax explores the human drama behind the discovery and development of antibiotics, an achievement that brought to fruition the efforts of Edward Jenner, Joseph Lister and Louis Pasteur to understand and combat microbial disease. The commonly accepted story of the development of penicillin during World War II -- done on the cheap in British laboratories in the face of the Nazi onslaught -- is fascinating enough. In the hands of Lax, best known for his bestselling biography of Woody Allen, the story behind the story is nearly as dramatic.

The title character in Lax's tale is Howard Florey, who along with fellow Oxford researcher Ernst Chain shared a Nobel Prize with Alexander Fleming for the development of penicillin. That Fleming today is regarded as the discoverer of penicillin while Florey, Chain and their colleagues are barely known is not completely unjust: Lax likens him to a man who saw something shiny in the water at Sutter's Mill, was certain it was gold, but couldn't figure out how to mine and refine it. It was the Oxford researchers, Lax says, whose painstaking efforts resulted in methods for using the wonder drug to treat patients. (The book's title refers to their idea for preserving their research in case of Nazi attack: Florey and the others smeared bits of Penicillium notatum onto their clothes, where the mold could remain dormant and fleeing scientists could carry samples to safe havens.)

Lax attributes Fleming's lasting fame to a variety of factors, from competition for research funding to British bias (Fleming was a Scotsman, while Florey was Australian and Chain a German Jewish immigrant). But more than anything else, he sees Florey and Chain as having gotten so little credit because they labored under the quaint belief that science should be advanced purely for the sake of society rather than for fame and fortune.

Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (March 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738203998
• ISBN-13: 978-0738203997
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #567,109 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Milgram: Arrogant and Clever, May 6, 2004

By	Thomas Dukich (Spokane, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been a fan of Stanley Milgram's work since my psychology grad school days in the late 60's. Fortunately, I also had the pleasure of hearing him speak and the honor of meeting him. So I waited with anticipation when I learned that Thomas Blass was writing a biography on Milgram. I was hoping that I would lean more about Milgram's groundbreaking research and that I might also end up liking him as a person, although I know that's certainly not the purpose of biography.

Well, thanks to Blass's book I did learn a lot about Milgram, not all of it very pleasant. And even at that, it seems to me that Blass pulled some punches to avoid making Milgram even less attractive as a person, perhaps in deference to Milgram's wife and his children who cooperated in the writing of this biography. For example, Blass reports that Milgram delayed his departure from Paris until he found out if his French girlfriend was pregnant. Blass doesn't say whether she was or not or what happened if she in fact was. Blass frequently references Milgram's sexual appetite and conquests but avoids discussion of whether this carried over to Milgram's later life. When I met Milgram, he was in the company of a tall, beautiful young woman who was described simply as his "traveling companion".

Blass does repeatedly mention Milgram's arrogance, snobbishness, and abrasiveness but also offers up what seem to be pedestrian acts of kindness attributed to Milgram and that he was a good family man. This "on the other hand" approach by Blass is apparently intended to imply that underneath it all Milgram could be very sensitive and kind or that he was "complicated". Blass also briefly mentions Milgram's drug use as a possible explanation of his mercurial behavior.

Overall, I was left with the impression that although Milgram was certainly funny, clever, creative, and intellectually curious, he was also driven by a strong need to gain status and recognition and that he could be deceptive and manipulative, e.g., he wrote letters to politicians representing himself untruthfully and falsely claimed to be a French student in order to get a rent subsidy from the French government. Later in his career, he even hired a professional clipping service to find all the reviews of his books but then, despite his substantial income, complained about the cost of his children's education.

Does this matter? In terms of Milgram's significant influence on social psychology and our understanding of obedience, the small world effect, etc., probably not. But in terms of biography just for the sake of recreational reading, to me it does. I almost hate to admit it but it's just more fun to read about someone you end up caring about, much like identifying with the main character in a movie. Although I was constantly reminded of Milgram's methodological cleverness and powers of observation, I couldn't shake the notion that Blass was too easy on him and that I would not have liked him very much as either a teacher or as a colleague. But perhaps this very type of personality is exactly what was needed to do the kinds of studies Milgram did, i.e., a "nicer" person wouldn't have done them.

Despite these opinions, I would still recommend the book because Milgram's work is so socially significant, unconventional, and methodologically clever. You might also gain some insight into the department politics at two prestigious universities when Blass writes about Milgram's unsuccessful attempts to land a tenured position at Harvard and Yale. If you decide to read a psychologist's biography other than this one, I would definitely recommend "Love at Goon Park", the biography of Harry Harlow by Deborah Blum. I believe Harlow was even more influential than Milgram. Better yet, read them both.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book on an important man., November 8, 2004

By	Mr. S. Ochojna (Edinburgh, Scotland.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am not a psychologist and have absolutely no grounding in the theory or practice of psychology but something about Milgram has always fascinated me.

It was therefore with some degree of trepidation that I ordered this book. I was worried that it would be full of jargon and too "heavy" for a non psychologist to deal with. This is certainly not the case. Dr Blass writes in a style that is easy to read and the whole book is very compelling. He has an obvious affection for Milgram as well as a huge and well researched knowledge base.

Stanley Milgram conducted experiments which often revealed unpleasant aspects human nature, his work is both alarming and revealing and should be essential reading for everyone. This book provides not only an account of Milgram's life but also a great overview of his work.

I cannot recommend it highly enough.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating book about a fascinating man. , November 23, 2004

By	Eileen Coughlan - See all my reviews

Stanley Milgram is one of the most influential social psychologists of our time, who through his obedience studies, made some of the greatest and most enduring contributions to psychology. Through his controversial experiments, that "shocked the world" he enabled us to make some sense of the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust. He made us look at our dark side, and began a world-discourse about why we blindly obey authority. That discourse continues today and can be found everywhere and in everything from academic journals to films, books, music, and even dog-training manuals. Not only is Milgram's work fascinating but the man himself was just as captivating.

In this superbly written biography of Milgram, Thomas Blass gives us an intimate look at the man behind the brilliance. Blass has meticulously researched Milgram's life and presented the reader with an honest, and not always complimentary, view of Stanley Milgram. I applaud Blass for his candid approach, and his balanced view of an extraordinary man. By revealing Milgram's darker side, Blass has cleverly demonstrated that we all share the same human foibles and weaknesses, and that ultimately the experimenter is no better and no worse than the subjects he uses in his experiments. We are all just humans.

With the current state of our world, I believe renewed discourse on the subject of blind obedience could not have come at a better time. Milgram's work is relevant to just about every aspect of our lives from workplace social dynamics to terrorism. Because of that, I recommend this book to everyone who shares a background in psychology and most certainly for those who do not. Blass's book is a marvelous introduction to Milgram's work and to the fascinating man himself.