The Simple and Courageous Course: Industrial Patronage of Basic Research at the University of Chicago, 1945–1953

Martin, Joseph D.

Abstract

The University of Chicago was the site of a remarkable ideological alignment after World War II. Its chancellor, Robert Maynard Hutchins, was one of mid-century America’s fiercest critics of science and of the moral stature of scientists. His administration nevertheless forged a détente with Chicago’s physical scientists in the process of establishing the Institutes for Basic Research, which consolidated the personnel and resources the Manhattan Project had brought to campus. Chicago’s left-leaning group of scientists and administrators then made common cause with a series of conservative industrial interests in order to fund the new institutes, on the basis that industry had an obligation to support basic research. This intersection of otherwise divergent ideological strands exposes the institutional malleability of patronage relationships in the years after World War II.

Citation

Martin, J. D. (2020). The Simple and Courageous Course: Industrial Patronage of Basic Research at the University of Chicago, 1945–1953. Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, 111(4), 697-716. https://doi.org/10.1086/711949

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 20, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jan 6, 2020
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2020
• Deposit Date: Mar 20, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 8, 2021
• Journal: Isis
• Print ISSN: 0021-1753
• Electronic ISSN: 1545-6994
• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 111
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 697-716
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/711949
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1274893