Does American Science have a "paranoid style"?
David Engber explores this question in a three-part series for Slate magazine that may be of interest to FHSA members. Engber traces the manufacture of uncertainty about science through a number of examples, ranging from intelligent design, industry-sponsored research, and environmental activism. He connects this trend to Richard Hofstadter's discussion of the "paranoid style in American politics." Sage Ross has an interesting assessment of moderate versus immoderate doubt about science from a history of science perspective.