Jones Allan
*Department of Computing and Communications,Faculty of Mathematics,Computing and Technology,Open University,Walton Hall,Milton Keynes,MK7 6AA,UK. Email:
Br J Hist Sci. 2016 Jun;49(2):259-78. doi: 10.1017/S0007087416000315. Epub 2016 Apr 14.
Science writer, historian and administrator J.G. Crowther (1899-1983) had an uneasy relationship with the BBC during the 1920s and 1930s, and was regarded with suspicion by the British security services because of his left politics. Nevertheless the Second World War saw him working for 'establishment' institutions. He was closely associated with the BBC's Overseas Service and employed by the British Council's Science Committee. Both organizations found Crowther useful because of his wide, international knowledge of science and scientists. Crowther's political views, and his international aspirations for the British Council's Science Committee, increasingly embroiled him in an institutional conflict with the Royal Society and with its president, Sir Henry Dale, who was also chairman of the British Council's Science Committee. The conflict centred on the management of international scientific relations, a matter close Crowther's heart, and to Dale's. Dale considered that the formal conduct of international scientific relations was the Royal Society's business rather than the British Council's. Crowther disagreed, and eventually resigned from the British Council Science Committee in 1946. The article expands knowledge of Crowther by drawing on archival documents to elucidate a side of his career that is only lightly touched on in his memoirs. It shows that 'Crowther's war' was also an institutional war between the Science Committee of the British Council and the Royal Society. Crowther's unhappy experience of interference by the Royal Society plausibly accounts for a retreat from his pre-war view that institutional science should plan and manage BBC science broadcasts.
科学作家、历史学家兼行政管理人员J.G. 克劳瑟（1899 - 1983）在20世纪20年代和30年代与英国广播公司关系紧张，因其左倾政治立场而受到英国安全部门的怀疑。然而，第二次世界大战期间，他为“体制内”机构工作。他与英国广播公司海外服务部密切相关，并受雇于英国文化协会科学委员会。由于他对科学和科学家有着广泛的国际了解，这两个组织都觉得克劳瑟很有用。克劳瑟的政治观点以及他对英国文化协会科学委员会的国际抱负，使他越来越多地卷入与皇家学会及其会长亨利·戴尔爵士（他也是英国文化协会科学委员会主席）的机构冲突之中。冲突的核心是国际科学关系的管理，这是一件克劳瑟和戴尔都很关心的事情。戴尔认为国际科学关系的正式处理是皇家学会的事情，而不是英国文化协会的。克劳瑟不同意，最终于1946年从英国文化协会科学委员会辞职。本文通过利用档案文件来阐述他职业生涯中在回忆录中只是略微提及的一面，从而扩展了对克劳瑟的了解。它表明“克劳瑟之战”也是英国文化协会科学委员会与皇家学会之间的一场机构之战。皇家学会的干涉给克劳瑟带来的不愉快经历，很可能解释了他为何从战前认为机构科学应该规划和管理英国广播公司科学广播的观点上退缩。
