REVIEW Whose Dreams?

It is said that there are 100,000 words in the English language, and before I read Philip Mirowski’s Machine Dreams (MD) I thought I knew 90,000 of them. Now, following this encounter, I feel that, at last, I have control of the whole English vocabulary! I start with this joke because it exemplifies in many ways the nature of this book. The way Mirowski shifts between different linguistic levels and sources, his metaphoric language and subtle ironies, and the sporadic poetic sections create an exceptional linguistic hybrid that parallels an extravaganza on the more substantive aspects of MD. Mirowski’s main storyline often disappears, branching off into numerous sub-plots and mini-theses, all swamped by piles of historical detail. As in some of those classical novels, the reader is often tempted to skip to the end to see how the plot plays out, and yet, the pleasure often lies in reading the details. MD is undoubtedly a unique book. It is unique due to its wide scope and its valiant attempt to tie together central features of modern life, technology, science management and funding, the Cold War, and the economic discipline. It is unique also because it combines painstaking historical research with wild speculations, although these are not always easy to separate from each other. More sacrilegious – particularly from the point of view of professional historians – it covers the history from World War II up to the minute the book went into print. Worse still, it attempts to predict the near future, a risk very few historians have dared to take. The result is a rare combination of historical narrative, theoretical treatise, and visionary prophecy. I believe very few people can check up on all the issues touched on by Mirowski, and this reviewer is certainly not among them. Being naive enough, I had thought that the book was a history of economics, which is why I initially took on the task of writing this review. That I