Lemov, Rebecca

(Rebecca M. Lemov, Rebecca Maura Lemov)

PERSONAL: Female. Education: University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D., 2000.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, P.O. Box 353100, Seattle, WA 98195-3100. E-mail—rlemov@u.washington.edu; rlemov@earthlink.net

CAREER: University of Washington, Seattle, instructor in anthropology.

WRITINGS:

World As Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men (nonflction), Hill & Wang (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Rebecca Lemov examines the relationship between big business and psychological research in her book World As Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men. John B. Watson was one of the pioneers of psychological experimentation. In 1916, the public was shocked to learn of his aversion, conditioning experiments, carried out on human babies. He later went on to become a top executive at a large national advertising agency. Lemov describes the implications of the use of psychological research to engineer human behavior. Her study discusses many other experiments and researchers, including attempts to use "scientific management" of factory workers, conducted during the 1920s and 1930s, and the hallucinogenic research carried out at Harvard by Timothy Leary.

Reviewing World As Laboratory for Business Week, Arlene Weintraub stated that Lemov "shines most brightly … in her colorful descriptions of the scientists who pioneered the study of human behavior." Although World As Laboratory is obviously a work that required "exhaustive research," Weintraub nevertheless found it "strangely incomplete" in making the connections between research and industry. Booklist contributor Gilbert Taylor, however, remarked that World As Laboratory "provides crucial backstory to contemporary practices" in advertising, media, and psychology. Another recommendation came from Antoinette Brinkman, who, in a Library Journal review, advised that readers would "find this authoritative, well-paced work enlightening."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 2005, Gilbert Taylor, review of World As Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men, p. 20.

Business Week, December 5, 2005, Arlene Weintraub, review of World As Laboratory, p. 108.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2005, review of World As Laboratory, p. 1013.

Library Journal, December 1, 2005, Antoinette Brink-man, review of World As Laboratory, p. 151.

New York Times, February 12, 2006, David Brooks, review of World As Laboratory.

Publishers Weekly, November 14, 2005, review of World As Laboratory, p. 61.