It is no secret that twentieth-century Britain was governed through a culture of secrecy, and secrecy was particularly endemic in military research and defence policy surrounding biological and chemical warfare. More generally, it is hard to exaggerate the role of secrecy in all past biological and chemical warfare programmes and several recent historical surveys of biological and chemical warfare research have emphasised that all state sponsored programmes, together with sub-state organised activities, were cloaked in utmost secrecy. Of these research programmes, Britain carried out one of...

Making a fresh contribution to the political history of science, this book explores the connections between the science policies of three countries that each experienced considerable political upheaval in the twentieth century: Spain, Italy and Argentina. By focussing on these three countries, the contributors are able to present case studies that highlight the characteristics and specificities of the democratic and dictatorial political processes involved in the production of science and technology. The focus on dictatorship presents the opportunity to expand our knowledge -beyond the more...