Little man
Subtitle: four junior physicists and the Red Scare experience
By: by Shawn Khristian Mullet
Published: 2008
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
Description: This dissertation examines the Red Scare through the experiences of four junior physicists: Bernard Peters, David Bohm, Joseph Weinberg, and Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz. Each of the men studied under J. Robert Oppenheimer in the years prior to the Manhattan Project and each worked on the Project at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory and engaged in left-wing political activity. After World War II, each obtained a teaching position in the United States, only to be called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. In the aftermath of their appearance, each left his university. This thesis examines how these young scientists were viewed by security officials during the Manhattan Project and by other institutions such as their universities, the State Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the postwar years. Concurrent with exploring how they were perceived, it also examines the extent to which decisions made by these men also shaped their experience of the era. From a historiographical point of view, this thesis argues that the documents produced by investigative or intelligence agencies are more problematic than has been considered in previous research and are more informative of how the investigative agency perceived their subject than they are an accurate account of historical events. From a historical point of view, this thesis goes beyond examining the most famous case of a scientist running afoul of the loyalty/security apparatus, that of Oppenheimer, and in focusing on those who did not enjoy the protection of professional distinction, it argues that it is only in certain respects that historians can think of scientists, particularly physicists, as being a special category of Red Scare victim. It also argues for the need to distinguish between the public aspects of anticommunism, i.e. HUAC, and the private ones, i.e. FBI agents working in the field.

This distinction speaks to how it was the case that for these young men the anticommunist apparatus was not necessarily a monolithic entity, but rather something which could be negotiated in some cases and less so in others.
Notes: "May 2008."

Thesis (Ph.D., Dept. of History of Science)--Harvard University, 2008.

Includes bibliographical references.