Inventing Accuracy - The MIT Press

January 1993
478 pp., 41 illus.
$43.00/£25.95 (PAPER)
Short

ISBN-10:
0-262-63147-4
ISBN-13:
978-0-262-63147-1

Cloth (1990)

Inside Technology

Related Links

Inventing Accuracy
A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance
Donald MacKenzie

Donald MacKenzie follows one line of technology - strategic ballistic missile guidance through a succession of weapons systems to reveal the workings of a world that is neither awesome nor unstoppable. He uncovers the parameters, the pressures, and the politics that make up the complex social construction of an equally complex technology.

Donald MacKenzie is Reader in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh.

About the Author

Donald MacKenzie is Professor of Sociology (Personal Chair) at the University of Edinburgh. His books include Inventing Accuracy (1990), Knowing Machines (1996), and Mechanizing Proof (2001), all published by the MIT Press. Portions of An Engine, not a Camera won the Viviana A. Zelizer Prize in economic sociology from the American Sociological Association.

"Inventing Accuracy is a brilliant achievement that will, if we are fortunate, change widespread misunderstandings about technological innovation. The strength of this book lies not only in its extremely clear and nuanced theoretical statements, but also in its rich historical narrative. This book should be of great interest to a diverse audience. It also provides a creative, if extremely demanding, model for future scholarship on technology and national security.
—Lynn Eden, Survival

"This is a great piece of sociology and a great book.... gripping, superbly researched, fair, sympathetic, and ultimately, hopeful."
—Steven Shapin, American Journal of Sociology

Winner of the 1993 Ludwik Fleck Prize presented by the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S).

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