World as Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men

World as Laboratory traces the history of human engineering and its lasting intellectual and social impact. The book examines how experiments conducted by human engineers in the first half of the twentieth century—often absurd, practical, or dangerous in nature—eventually moved beyond laboratory settings to shape everyday modern life. Lemov documents how the techniques developed during this period became embedded in contemporary practices: advertising, polling, focus groups, and the strategic messaging used by marketers and politicians. The work provides historical context for current approaches in psychology and mass media, offering a detailed account of how the early science of human behavior and society evolved into the systems and methods that surround us today.