Merchants of Doubt
How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming
Historians Oreskes and Conway expose how the same handful of contrarian scientists worked to manufacture doubt about tobacco, acid rain, and climate change, delaying action for decades.
Science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway follow a paper trail showing that the same small group of well-connected scientists ran the same playbook across decades. Hired first to defend tobacco, they later cast doubt on acid rain, the ozone hole, and climate change, not by winning the science but by manufacturing the appearance of controversy. The book is a sobering look at how a determined few can stall public action by selling uncertainty, and why Elon Musk urged people to read it.
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