Although nominally a further edition of a book that appeared in 1975, Science and Technology in the USA is really a totally new survey of the statistics and structures of science in the United States, and as such is vastly superior to its predecessor. It even includes unexpected touches of character and opinion. ("The greatest challenge to the scientific and technical community is to help engineer a national security system so that it provides the necessary defences and at the same time minimizes the probability of war," we are told at one point.)
A reviewer with an inordinately tidy cerebral cortex might quibble over presentational inconsistencies between one chapter and another, particularly in relation to budgetary data drawn from disparate documents. There are also a few items—for example, a population estimate dated 1982—that seem not to be based on the most recent information. Sadly too, events have overtaken the periodicals ...
