Politics of Excellence: Behind the Nobel Prize in Science

Friedman looked through actual Nobel archives to show how much individual agendas, politics, and ambition have overtaken "conferring the greatest benefit on mankind" in the selection process. Explores how one year a prize can be offered before any major discovery has been made and yet Einstein was never given one for his theory of relativity (he won later for other work). A wonderful survey of 20th Century science history.

The Nobel Prize is widely seen as a mark of genius and the greatest reward a scientist can receive in his or her career. Universities and research institutions vie with each other to attract Nobel laureates, and students in the sciences dream of one day being prizewinners themselves. How could we possibly doubt the integrity of this prestigious award?

In this first in-depth study of the Nobel archives, Robert Marc Friedman reveals a prize that is above neither the dictates of fashion and politics, nor the personal agendas of committee members. The cases of Albert Einstein and Lise Meitner are only the best known among many that Friedman examines that underscore how on more than one occasion it has conferred acclaim on mediocrity and denied true brilliance its due. Chronicling the prize's 100-year history, he charts how, in spite of recurring controversy, the prize has attained to the prominence it holds today.

An eye-opening look at one of our greatest cultural icons, The Politics of Excellence ultimately questions the legacy of the Nobel Prize in a culture characterized by intense competition for resources, indecorous commercialism, and hype.

Robert Marc Friedman is a professor of the history of science at University of Oslo. Trained at Johns Hopkins University and until recently associated with the University of California at San Diego, he is a distinguished historian of modern science and its relations to society. His work has received numerous prizes and international recognition. He first published on the Nobel Prize in the prestigious British journal Nature in 1981 and subsequently received support for his study of the prize from research councils in the United States, Sweden, and Norway.