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

Martin, Joseph D.

doi:10.1086/711949

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

Martin, Joseph D.

Authors

Dr Joseph Martin joseph.d.martin@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

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