Paul R. Josephson's Books

Resources under Regimes

Technology, Environment, and the State

By: Paul R. JOSEPHSON,Paul R Josephson

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Resources under Regimes

Technology, Environment, and the State

By: Paul R. JOSEPHSON,Paul R Josephson

Democratic or authoritarian, every society needs clean air and water; every state must manage its wildlife and natural resources. In this provocative, comparative study, Josephson asks to what extent the form of a government and its economy--centrally planned or market, colonial or post-colonial--determines how politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, engineers, and industrialists address environmental and social problems presented by the transformation of nature into a humanized landscape.

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Page Count

278

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674039246

ISBN 13

9780674039247

Lenin's Laureate

Zhores Alferov's Life in Communist Science

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Lenin's Laureate

Zhores Alferov's Life in Communist Science

By: Paul R. Josephson

The life and work of a leading Soviet physicist and an exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of Soviet science from Stalin through Gorbachev. In 2000, Russian scientist Zhores Alferov shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the heterojunction, a semiconductor device the practical applications of which include LEDs, rapid transistors, and the microchip. The Prize was the culmination of a career in Soviet science that spanned the eras of Stalin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev—and continues today in the postcommunist Russia of Putin and Medvedev. In Lenin's Laureate, historian Paul Josephson tells the story of Alferov's life and work and examines the bureaucratic, economic, and ideological obstacles to doing state-sponsored scientific research in the Soviet Union. Lenin and the Bolsheviks built strong institutions for scientific research, rectifying years of neglect under the Czars. Later generations of scientists, including Alferov and his colleagues, reaped the benefits, achieving important breakthroughs: the first nuclear reactor for civilian energy, an early fusion device, and, of course, the Sputnik satellite. Josephson's account of Alferov's career reveals the strengths and weaknesses of Soviet science—a schizophrenic environment of cutting-edge research and political interference. Alferov, born into a family of Communist loyalists, joined the party in 1967. He supported Gorbachev's reforms in the 1980s, but later became frustrated by the recession-plagued postcommunist state's failure to fund scientific research adequately. An elected member of the Russian parliament since 1995, he uses his prestige as a Nobel laureate to protect Russian science from further cutbacks. Drawing on extensive archival research and the author's own discussions with Alferov, Lenin's Laureate offers a unique account of Soviet science, presented against the backdrop of the USSR's turbulent history from the revolution through perestroika.

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Page Count

314

Publisher

MIT Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0262291509

ISBN 13

9780262291507

The Conquest of the Russian Arctic

By: Paul R. Josephson

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The Conquest of the Russian Arctic

By: Paul R. Josephson

Spanning nine time zones from Norway to the Bering Strait, the immense Russian Arctic was mostly unexplored before the twentieth century. This changed rapidly in the 1920s, when the Soviet Union implemented plans for its conquest. The Conquest of the Russian Arctic, a definitive political and environmental history of one of the world’s remotest regions, details the ambitious attempts, from Soviet times to the present, to control and reshape the Arctic, and the terrible costs paid along the way. Paul Josephson describes the effort under Stalin to assimilate the Arctic into the Soviet empire. Extraction of natural resources, construction of settlements, indoctrination of nomadic populations, collectivization of reindeer herding—all was to be accomplished so that the Arctic operated according to socialist principles. The project was in many ways an extension of the Bolshevik revolution, as planners and engineers assumed that policies and plans that worked elsewhere in the empire would apply here. But as they pushed ahead with methods hastily adopted from other climates, the results were political repression, destruction of traditional cultures, and environmental degradation. The effects are still being felt today. At the same time, scientists and explorers led the world in understanding Arctic climes and regularities. Vladimir Putin has redoubled Russia’s efforts to secure the Arctic, seen as key to the nation’s economic development and military status. This history brings into focus a little-understood part of the world that remains a locus of military and economic pressures, ongoing environmental damage, and grand ambitions imperfectly realized.

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454

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Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674419839

ISBN 13

9780674419834

Motorized Obsessions

Life, Liberty, and the Small-Bore Engine

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Motorized Obsessions

Life, Liberty, and the Small-Bore Engine

By: Paul R. Josephson

From dirt bikes and jet skis to weed wackers and snowblowers, machines powered by small gas engines have become a permanent - and loud - fixture in American culture. But fifty years of high-speed fun and pristine lawns have not come without cost. technology it powers, Paul R. Josephson explores the political, environmental, and public health issues surrounding one of America's most dangerous pastimes. Each chapter tells the story of an ecosystem within the United States and the devices that wreak havoc on it - personal watercraft (PWCs) on inland lakes and rivers; all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in deserts and forests; lawn mowers and leaf blowers in suburbia. In addition to environmental impacts, Josephson discusses the development and promotion of these technologies, the legal and regulatory efforts made to improve their safety and environmental soundness, and the role of owners' clubs in encouraging responsible operation. research, nongovernmental organizations, and manufacturers, Josephson's compelling history leads to one irrefutable conclusion: these machines cannot be operated without loss of life and loss of habitat.

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292

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801886414

ISBN 13

9780801886416

Robustness in Automatic Speech Recognition

Fundamentals and Applications

By: Jean-Claude Junqua,Jean-Paul Haton

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Robustness in Automatic Speech Recognition

Fundamentals and Applications

By: Jean-Claude Junqua,Jean-Paul Haton

Foreword Looking back the past 30 years. we have seen steady progress made in the area of speech science and technology. I still remember the excitement in the late seventies when Texas Instruments came up with a toy named "Speak-and-Spell" which was based on a VLSI chip containing the state-of-the-art linear prediction synthesizer. This caused a speech technology fever among the electronics industry. Particularly. applications of automatic speech recognition were rigorously attempt ed by many companies. some of which were start-ups founded just for this purpose. Unfortunately. it did not take long before they realized that automatic speech rec ognition technology was not mature enough to satisfy the need of customers. The fever gradually faded away. In the meantime. constant efforts have been made by many researchers and engi neers to improve the automatic speech recognition technology. Hardware capabilities have advanced impressively since that time. In the past few years. we have been witnessing and experiencing the advent of the "Information Revolution." What might be called the second surge of interest to com mercialize speech technology as a natural interface for man-machine communication began in much better shape than the first one. With computers much more powerful and faster. many applications look realistic this time. However. there are still tremendous practical issues to be overcome in order for speech to be truly the most natural interface between humans and machines.

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Page Count

457

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1461312973

ISBN 13

9781461312970

Physics and Politics in Revolutionary Russia

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Physics and Politics in Revolutionary Russia

By: Paul R. Josephson

Aided by personal documents and institutional archives that were closed for decades, this book recounts the development of physics—or, more aptly, science under stress—in Soviet Russia up to World War II. Focusing on Leningrad, center of Soviet physics until the late 1930s, Josephson discusses the impact of scientific, cultural, and political revolution on physicists' research and professional aspirations. Political and social revolution in Russia threatened to confound the scientific revolution. Physicists eager to investigate new concepts of space, energy, light, and motion were forced to accommodate dialectical materialism and subordinate their interests to those of the state. They ultimately faced Stalinist purges and the shift of physics leadership to Moscow. This account of scientists cut off from their Western colleagues reveals a little-known part of the history of modern physics.

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Page Count

452

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520911474

ISBN 13

9780520911475

Would Trotsky Wear a Bluetooth?

Technological Utopianism under Socialism, 1917–1989

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Would Trotsky Wear a Bluetooth?

Technological Utopianism under Socialism, 1917–1989

By: Paul R. Josephson

After visiting Russia in 1921, the journalist Lincoln Steffens famously declared, ”I have seen the future, and it works.” Steffens referred to the social experiment of technological utopianism he found in the Soviet Union, where subway cars and farm tractors would carry the worker and peasant—figuratively and literally—into the twentieth century. Believing that socialism and technology together created a brave new world, Boleslaw Bierut of Poland and Kim Il Sung of North Korea—and other leaders—joined Russia’s Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky in embracing big technology with a verve and conviction that rivaled the western world's. Paul R. Josephson here explores these utopian visions of technology—and their unanticipated human and environmental costs. He examines the role of technology in communist plans and policies and the interplay between ideology and technological development. He shows that while technology was a symbol of regime legitimacy and an engine of progress, the changes it spurred were not unequivocally positive. Instead of achieving a worker’s paradise, socialist technologies exposed the proletariat to dangerous machinery and deadly pollution; rather than freeing women from exploitation in family and labor, they paradoxically created for them the dual—and exhausting—burdens of mother and worker. The future did not work. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the end of communism’s self-proclaimed glorious quest to "reach and surpass" the West. Josephson’s intriguing study of how technology both helped and hindered this effort asks new and important questions about the crucial issues inextricably linked with the development and diffusion of technology in any sociopolitical system.

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354

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801898412

ISBN 13

9780801898419

Chicken

A History from Farmyard to Factory

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Chicken

A History from Farmyard to Factory

By: Paul R. Josephson

Why has the chicken become the meat par excellence, the most plentifully eaten and popular animal protein in the world, consumed from Beijing to Barcelona? As renowned historian Paul Josephson shows, the story of the chicken's rise involves a whole host of factors; from art, to nineteenth-century migration patterns to cold-war geopolitics. And whereas sheep needed too much space, or the cow was difficult to transport, these compact, lightweight birds produced relatively little waste, were easy to transport and could happily peck away in any urban back garden. Josephson tells this story from all sides: the transformation of the chicken from backyard scratcher to hyper-efficient industrial meat-product has been achieved due to the skill of entrepreneurs who first recognized the possibilities of chicken meat and the gene scientists who bred the plumpest and most fertile birds. But it has also been forced through by ruthless capitalists and lobbyists for “big farmer”, at the expense of animal welfare and the environment. With no sign of our lust for chicken abating, we're now reaching a crisis point: billions of birds are slaughtered every year, after having lived lives that are nasty, brutish and short. The waste from these victims is polluting rivers and poisoning animals. We’re now plunging “egg-first” into environmental disaster. Alongside this story Josephson tells another, of an animal with endearing characteristics who, arguably, can lay claim to being man’s best friend long before the dog reared its snout or the cat came in from the cold. Lionized in medieval romances and modern cartoons, the chicken’s relationship to humanity runs deep; by treating these animals as mere food products, we become less than human.

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Page Count

161

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Published Date

ISBN 10

1509525947

ISBN 13

9781509525942

Fish Sticks, Sports Bras, and Aluminum Cans

The Politics of Everyday Technologies

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Fish Sticks, Sports Bras, and Aluminum Cans

The Politics of Everyday Technologies

By: Paul R. Josephson

Historian Paul R. Josephson explores the surprising origins, political contexts, and social meanings of ordinary objects. Drawing on archival materials, technical journals, interviews, and field research, this engaging collection of essays reveals the forces that shape (and are shaped by) everyday objects.

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223

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421417839

ISBN 13

9781421417837

Nuclear Russia

The Atom in Russian Politics and Culture

By: Paul Josephson

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Nuclear Russia

The Atom in Russian Politics and Culture

By: Paul Josephson

In the first cultural and political history of the Russian nuclear age, Paul Josephson describes the rise of nuclear physics in the USSR, the enthusiastic pursuit of military and peaceful nuclear programs through the Chernobyl disaster and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the ongoing, self-proclaimed 'renaissance' of nuclear power in Russia in the 21st century. At the height of their power, the Soviets commanded 39,000 nuclear warheads, yet claimed to be servants of the 'peaceful atom' – which they also pursued avidly. This book examines both military and peaceful Soviet and post-Soviet nuclear programs for the long durée – before the war, during the Cold War, and in Russia to the present – whilst also grappling with the political and ideological importance of nuclear technologies, the associated economic goals, the social and environmental costs, and the cultural embrace of nuclear power. Nuclear Russia probes the juncture of history of science and technology, political and cultural history, and environmental history. It considers the atom in Russian society as a reflection of Leninist technological utopianism, Cold War imperatives, scientific hubris, public acceptance, and a state desire to conquer nature. Furthermore the book examines the vital – and perhaps unexpected – significance of ethnicity and gender in nuclear history by looking at how Kazakhs and Nenets lost their homelands and their health in Russia in the wake of nuclear testing, as well as the surprising sexualization of the taming of the female atom in the Russian 'Miss Atom' contests that commenced in the 21st century.

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161

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1350272574

ISBN 13

9781350272576

Red Atom

Russia's Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Red Atom

Russia's Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today

By: Paul R. Josephson

Reveals the history and death of the Soviet Union’s peaceful use of nuclear power through exploration of both the projects and the technocratic and political elite who were dedicated to increasing state power through technology. Paul Josephson illuminates the problems that can befall any society heavily invested in large-scale technology.

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352

Publisher

University of Pittsburgh Pre

Published Date

ISBN 10

0822958813

ISBN 13

9780822958819

Red Atom

Russias Nuclear Power Program From Stalin To Today

By: Paul Josephson

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Red Atom

Russias Nuclear Power Program From Stalin To Today

By: Paul Josephson

In the 1950s, Soviet nuclear scientists and leaders imagined a stunning future when giant reactors would generate energy quickly and cheaply, nuclear engines would power cars, ships, and airplanes, and peaceful nuclear explosions would transform the landscape. Driven by the energy of the atom, the dream of communism would become a powerful reality. Thirty years later, that dream died in Chernobyl. What went wrong? Based on exhaustive archival research and interviews, Red Atom takes a behind-the-scenes look at the history of the Soviet Union's peaceful use of nuclear power. It explores both the projects and the technocratic and political elite who were dedicated to increasing state power through technology. And it describes the political, economic, and environmental fallout of Chernobyl. A story of big science run amok, Red Atom illuminates the problems that can befall any society heavily invested in large-scale technology.

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365

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University of Pittsburgh Pre

Published Date

ISBN 10

0822978474

ISBN 13

9780822978473

Fish Sticks, Sports Bras, and Aluminum Cans

The Politics of Everyday Technologies

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Fish Sticks, Sports Bras, and Aluminum Cans

The Politics of Everyday Technologies

By: Paul R. Josephson

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223

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JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421417839

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9781421417837

Resources under Regimes

Technology, Environment, and the State

By: Paul R. JOSEPHSON

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Resources under Regimes

Technology, Environment, and the State

By: Paul R. JOSEPHSON

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269

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Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674022432

ISBN 13

9780674022430

The Conquest of the Russian Arctic

By: Paul R. Josephson

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The Conquest of the Russian Arctic

By: Paul R. Josephson

Spanning nine time zones, the Russian Arctic was mostly unexplored before the twentieth century. Paul Josephson describes the massive effort under Stalin to assimilate the Arctic into the Soviet empire—effects still being felt today, as Putin redoubles efforts to secure the Arctic, which he sees as key to Russia’s economic and military status.

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454

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Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674728904

ISBN 13

9780674728905

Would Trotsky Wear a Bluetooth?

Technological Utopianism under Socialism, 1917–1989

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Would Trotsky Wear a Bluetooth?

Technological Utopianism under Socialism, 1917–1989

By: Paul R. Josephson

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354

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JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801898412

ISBN 13

9780801898419

Chicken

A History from Farmyard to Factory

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Chicken

A History from Farmyard to Factory

By: Paul R. Josephson

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Page Count

252

Publisher

Polity

Published Date

ISBN 10

1509525912

ISBN 13

9781509525911

New Atlantis Revisited

Akademgorodok, the Siberian City of Science

By: Paul R. Josephson

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New Atlantis Revisited

Akademgorodok, the Siberian City of Science

By: Paul R. Josephson

In 1958 construction began on Akademgorodok, a scientific utopian community modeled after Francis Bacon's vision of a "New Atlantis." The city, carved out of a Siberian forest 2,500 miles east of Moscow, was formed by Soviet scientists with Khrushchev's full support. They believed that their rational science, liberated from ideological and economic constraints, would help their country surpass the West in all fields. In a lively history of this city, a symbol of de-Stalinization, Paul Josephson offers the most complete analysis available of the reasons behind the successes and failures of Soviet science--from advances in nuclear physics to politically induced setbacks in research on recombinant DNA. Josephson presents case studies of high energy physics, genetics, computer science, environmentalism, and social sciences. He reveals that persistent ideological interference by the Communist Party, financial uncertainties, and pressures to do big science endemic in the USSR contributed to the failure of Akademgorodok to live up to its promise. Still, a kind of openness reigned that presaged the glasnost of Gorbachev's administration decades later. The openness was rooted in the geographical and psychological distance from Moscow and in the informal culture of exchange intended to foster the creative impulse. Akademgorodok is still an important research center, having exposed physics, biology, sociology, economics, and computer science to new investigations, distinct in pace and scope from those performed elsewhere in the Soviet scientific establishment.

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351

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691044546

ISBN 13

9780691044545

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