Science for Welfare and Warfare: Technology and State Initiative in Cold War Sweden

Lundin, Per, Niklas Stenlås, and Johan Gribbe, eds., 2010, 324pp., clothbound and jacketed, illus. in black and white and color   Science for welfare and warfare investigates the establishment of state-led science and technology in the economic and industrial development or cold war Sweden. Written by Swedish historians, the book examines how the state gradually took on a new role during and after the second world war; how this role was justified; how it thoroughly transformed Swedish society and economy over the following several decades. In virtually all sectors of society, government committees were assigned to survey the needs and propose reforms, new institutions were formed to house and provide the necessary expertise, and many large-scale technological initiatives were launched. These comprehensive reforms resulted in the strong state that came to characterize cold war Sweden—a state consisting of both welfare institutions and warfare machinery. The contributing authors demonst