The Closed World
That’s the title of a 1996 book by Paul Edwards. It’s about the effect of technology on culture, and the effect of culture on technology - as he puts it, “the social construction of tchnology . . [and] the technological construction of social worlds” - in the context of the Cold War. Edwards provides some background on the research strengths that Americans had before the mindset of the Cold War kicked in:
“The [WWII] effort . . brought about the most radical disciplinary mixing, administrative centralization, and social reorganization of science and engineering ever attempted in the United States.. . Almost as important as the institutional restructuring was the creation of an unprecedented experience of community among scientists and engineers. Boundaries between scientific and engineering disciplines were routinely transgressed in the wartime labs, and scientists found the chance to apply their abilities to create useful devices profoundly exciting.. . Connections formed during World War II became the basis. . for enduring relationships between individuals, institutions, and intellectual areas.”
Interdisciplinarity, community, and a sense of purpose, all driven initially by the need to design better bombing capability.