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Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future Paperback – June 8, 2010

by Chris Mooney (Author), Sheril Kirshenbaum (Author)

75 customer reviews

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Climate change, the energy crisis, nuclear proliferation—many of the most urgent problems of the twenty-first century require scientific solutions, yet America is paying less and less attention to scientists. For every five hours of cable news, less than one minute is devoted to science, and the number of newspapers with science sections has shrunk from ninety-five to thirty-three in the last twenty years. In Unscientific America, journalist and best-selling author Chris Mooney and scientist Sheril Kirshenbaum explain this dangerous state of affairs, proposing a broad array of initiatives that could reverse the current trend.

An impassioned call to arms, Unscientific America exhorts Americans to reintegrate science into public discourse—before it is too late.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris Mooney is the author of The Republican War on Science and Storm World. A Knight fellow in science journalism at MIT, he contributes to many publications, including Mother Jones, Wired, the Boston Globe, and Slate. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sheril Kirshenbaum is Associate in Research for Ocean and Coastal Policy at Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Product details

Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Basic Books; First Trade Paper Ed edition (June 8, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780465019175
ISBN-13: 978-0465019175
ASIN: 046501917X
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 75 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #477,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #318 in Books > Science & Math > Science for Kids
- #2579 in Books > Science & Math > History & Philosophy
- #15594 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy

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America and Science; why it is so complicated

July 15, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book discusses an extremely important issue that is seldom discussed. Despite the fact that science has brought immense wealth and technology to the United States, greatly increased the understanding of the world, and despite the fact that scientific knowledge is becoming increasingly important to the US and our world, most Americans have a poor understanding of science and are often dismissive and even hostile towards science. Half of Americans do not know that Earth orbit the sun once a year, half of Americans believe humans were recently (less than 10,000 years ago) created as Adam and Eve and reject evolution. Global warming denial is widespread, Astrology is popular but Astronomy is a yawn, there is a substantial anti-vaccine movement, pseudo science is often popular while serious science is labeled junk science by those who do not like its conclusions. Science is not popular and has been mostly ejected from main stream media despite the growing number of scientific publications for professionals.

This book identifies several possible causes for this situation including a long standing American anti-intellectualism, a cultural low regard for knowledge without obvious business application, the rise of the religious right, political partisanship, the increasing complexity and diversification of science, the end of the cold war and the space race, the failure of scientists to communicate their science, ludicrous documentaries such as “Expelled:”, and even internet. Internet (ironically a government funded science project) allows people instant access to ideologically-driven/political cherry picked and often bogus “science”, whilst the scientific processes of actual science takes years to grind through and analyze the outcome. The authors also blame the new atheists, Hollywood’s depiction of scientists, and scientists who are insensitive to culture, for the negative stereotyping of scientists and science. As a solution the authors are suggesting that scientists should become better communicators.

I agree with all that but as a European I still think that the authors are missing one important aspect and that is cultural isolation. Americans have a hard time with languages, comparing countries, a hard time with geography, and also with things such as understanding “per capita”. As an example, I told someone that my country Sweden, which has a similar GDP per capita to the US, provides fairly good medical care for everyone. The reply I got was that Sweden has much fewer people so that is much easier to do. I replied that, 35 times fewer people also mean 35 times less resources (similar GDP per capita). Well, that didn’t work. I had to explain this for a very long time in various ways before it clicked, and this was a well educated adult. This happens to me frequently in the US. I think Americans are so focused on their own big country, their own religious beliefs, and are so focused on the Liberal/Conservative rift in this country (you can always dismiss that single other side when you only have two), that people “jump the gun”, so to speak, and rational discussion outside of the familiar echo chambers becomes difficult. Along the same lines, creationists and global warming deniers are much fewer in Northern Europe, but a more problematic difference is the common refusal of American creationists and global warming deniers to even consider the related science, and often dismiss it with laughably untenable conspiracy theories, whilst the European ones tend to have a more humble attitude. Again I blame this on cultural isolation, but I could be wrong. I should add that I believe I see the same jump the gun dismissal of science and rational arguments in the Arab world and some other developing regions, but somehow I expect that more.

In summary I think this was a good book, with a lot of interesting thoughts and observations, at the same time I think the analysis was not wide enough and perhaps not deep enough. I still really enjoyed reading this book and I think it has some valuable insights and therefore I recommend it.

6 people found this helpful7 people found this helpful

John R. Craynon

Good content, but very political

April 5, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

America is unscientific, but the authors choose to blame it all on the George W. Bush administration...which way oversimplifies and politicizes the problem. As a 28-year federal employee involved in science, I found that all administrations have their positives and negatives when it comes to science, and the current one doesn't want to hear about science it doesn't agree with any more than the previous one.

I was disappointed that the focus of the arguments about scientific illiteracy were based predominantly on the almost cliche arguments about global warming, when the problems are FAR more pervasive. Randy Olson deals with the same subjects with more aplomb.

4 people found this helpful5 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Journalist's view of what's wrong

December 30, 2009

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book is written by Mooney, a science journalist and Kirschenbaum, a trained scientist who switched over to the world of politics, and as such, it reads like a politically-oriented, extended journalistic piece on the issue it purports to cover. The title and the cover seem to imply that the book will be about a dangerous lack of scientific literacy in the US, a potentially popular topic among readers given the high profile of some recent science issues. However, the book ends up being more about the interaction of science and scientists with the general public than it does with the general status of science. The recurring theme in this book is that there is a general disconnect between the pristine, well-ordered world of scientists, call it the ivory tower or the highly specialized world of the experts, and the general public which gets its information and entertainment from movies, TV shows and blogs, among other things. While the authors try to be even-handed and point out both the good and bad points from each side, the book tends to feel like an indictment of scientists and their inability to cross the divide and make science entertaining and relevant. In the end, the book basically decides that what we need isn't necessarily more trained experts, but more training for the experts in things like communication, writing and speaking skills. They seem to feel that we need more Carl Sagans.

This book does make some excellent points and the authors do seem to have a pretty good grasp on what is good science and what is not; however, in the end, scientists get too much of the blame, and those who promote science denial, or bad science get let off the hook too lightly. It is true that bridging the gap between the experts and the general public in an effective way is a big concern found among many who write on this topic, but it seems as though this book is too willing to chalk the problem up either to improperly trained scientists or some sort of institutionalized bias in the media world. One of the strongest aspects of this book is the fact that the authors clearly point out, in a number of places, that the technological arrangement and delivery of media currently allows for a number of dangerous tendencies, such as: the focus on profit over substance which tends to eliminate serious scientific coverage, the fragmentation of delivery into many cable channels or an infinite number of websites which allow people to tune out things they don't want to hear or read about, and the ability for anyone to create a TV show or post something to the web, which allows for many disinformation sites to become places where like-minded science deniers can pat each other on the back. In spite of these keen observations, the book has some shortcomings. It seems to suggest that scientists need to accept a number of big compromises. The authors suggest that due to the way movies are made, scientists have to accept bending of science or scientifically ludicrous ideas in movies so that they can be entertaining and sell. They are also very hostile towards the so-called new Atheist movement and insist that science has to accept a co-existence with religion.

In the end, this book will probably be somewhat disappointing to those who appreciate the modern scientific heritage of this country and are gravely concerned about the anti-scientific direction some segments of society seem to be taking. On the other hand, the book does make a number of very thought-provoking observations and seems to suggest one possible path to bridge the gap between science and the general population that could bypass a cultural war and situation in which one side's victory implies the other side's defeat. The best bet is to keep in mind that this book was written by two people whose careers are deeply involved with public perception and the marketing of ideas. As such, it is not a bad take on an issue of great concern and importance.

29 people found this helpful30 people found this helpful

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