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"On the basis of research and much previously unpublished material, Alston Chase presents a radically new interpretation of the infamous Unabomber. He projects Ted Kaczynski's life against the sinister backdrop of the Cold War, when the prospect of nuclear conflict generated on college campuses a fear of technology and a culture of despair.
On those same campuses, federal agencies enlisted psychologists in a covert search for technologies of mind control and encouraged ethically questionable experiments of unwitting students." "Harvard and the Unabomber is both a page-turner and a cautionary tale about modern evil. The conditions that provoked Kaczynski's alienation remain in place. In fact, they may be getting worse, as the War on Terrorism replaces the Cold War in American policy and imagination."--BOOK JACKET.
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Subjects
Serial murderers, Psychology, Biography, Bombers (Terrorists)Places
United StatesShowing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
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1
Harvard and the Unabomber: the education of an American terrorist
2003, W. W. Norton & Co., W.W. Norton
in English
- 1st ed.
0393020029 9780393020021
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2
Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist
March 2003, W. W. Norton & Company
in English
0393020029 9780393020021
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Book Details
Published in
New York, USA
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Work Description
Chase adds an important element to our understanding of the infamous Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. Part of what made Kaczynski an iconic figure after his arrest in 1996 for 16 mail bombings (resulting in three deaths) between 1978 and 1995 was his unusual background as a highly gifted, Harvard-educated mathematician. While the media found comfort in writing him off as a mental case, more remarkable was how seemingly typical Kaczynski was. Bucking the conventional wisdom, Chase (In a Dark Wood) identifies Kaczynski as a victim more of the anxious and contradictory Cold War 1950s than of the incendiary 1960s. With a background strikingly similar to Kaczynski's-including both a Harvard degree and self-imposed exile in Montana-Chase is in a unique position to probe the underlying tensions that led Kaczynski to commit dispassionate murder in the name of ideals. Chase persuasively isolates the turning point in his subject's years at Harvard, "where lasting human relations are more rare than championship football teams." In Cambridge he faced the typical Harvard pressures but, more importantly, was a subject of three years' worth of what many will agree were wildly irresponsible psychological experiments led by maverick psychology pioneer Henry A. Murray. While the conclusions Chase draws are unimpeachable, his description of the fateful experiments feels truncated, no doubt because some records remain sealed. Chase's disenchanted indictment of academia (represented here by Harvard) as lackey to the military-industrial complex is all the more compelling for the author's unruffled sense of perspective. With its unusual emphasis and sometimes surprisingly personal tone, this may become the definitive Kaczynski volume. 16 pages of photos not seen before.
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