Shaky Foundations: The Politics-Patronage-Social Science Nexus in Cold War America (Studies in Modern Science, Technology, and the Environment)

"Numerous popular and scholarly accounts have exposed the deep impact of patrons on the production of scientific knowledge and its applications. Shaky Foundations provides the first extensive examination of a new patronage system for the social sciences that emerged in the early Cold War years and took more definite shape during the 1950s and early 1960s, a period of enormous expansion in American social science. By focusing on the military, the Ford Foundation, and the National Science Foundation, Mark Solovey shows how this patronage system presented social scientists and other interested parties, including natural scientists and politicians, with new opportunities to work out the scientific identity, social implications, and public policy uses of academic social research. Solovey also examines significant criticisms of the new patronage system, which contributed to widespread efforts to rethink and reshape the politics-patronage-social science nexus starting in the mid-1960s. Based on extensive archival research, Shaky Foundations addresses fundamental questions about the intellectual foundations of the social sciences, their relationships with the natural sciences and the humanities, and the political and ideological import of academic social inquiry."--Publisher's website. “Solovey's social scientists are neither naïve researchers exploited by the military-industrial complex nor greedy masterminds eagerly anticipating their patrons'needs. Instead, he presents us with a series of encounters between program managers, disciplinary spokesmen, and political partisans, each of which demonstrates its participants'unexpectedly complex positions. In what feels like a prelude to contemporary partisan investigations of the social sciences, Shaky Foundations recounts numerous instances of McCarthy-era attacks on social scientists as leftist agitators.” —Science “Shaky Foundations offers an important new argument about how the American social sciences interacted with wider social and political forces during the Cold War era. Solovey has done very important work in establishing the bitterly contested character of postwar epistemological and institutional shifts.” —Isis “This is an important book. The brilliance of this book lies in pinpointing the origins of the terms that are still used in contemporary debates on the role of social science in the United States. This book is a critical tool in approaching the most essential question —what's next for American social science?” —LSE Review of Books “Solovey leaves readers with a sharpened understanding of the travails of social science research during the first two decades of the Cold War.” —Journal of American History “Solovey makes a valuable contribution to the growing literature on the development of social sciences in the U.S. during the 20th century. A major achievement is the author's presentation of this often complicated and complex story in a clearly written and well-documented manner. Highly recommended.” —Choice “Shaky Foundations impressively pulls back the curtain on American social scientists and their complex relationships with funding agencies, offering crucial insights into the past—and the future—of social science.” —David C. Engerman, author of Know Your Enemy: The Rise and Fall of America's Soviet Experts “In this clearly written and thoroughly researched book, Mark Solovey takes a new approach to writing the history of the social sciences in America by ‘following the money'and examining how patrons and their agendas shaped the development of the field.” —Nadine Weidman, author of Constructing Scientific Psychology: Karl Lashley's Mind-Brain Debates

Numerous popular and scholarly accounts have exposed the deep impact of patrons on the production of scientific knowledge and its applications. Shaky Foundations provides the first extensive examination of a new patronage system for the social sciences that emerged in the early Cold War years and took more definite shape during the 1950s and early 1960s, a period of enormous expansion in American social science.

By focusing on the military, the Ford Foundation, and the National Science Foundation, Mark Solovey shows how this patronage system presented social scientists and other interested parties, including natural scientists and politicians, with new opportunities to work out the scientific identity, social implications, and public policy uses of academic social research. Solovey also examines significant criticisms of the new patronage system, which contributed to widespread efforts to rethink and reshape the politics-patronage-social science nexus starting in the mid-1960s.

Based on extensive archival research, Shaky Foundations addresses fundamental questions about the intellectual foundations of the social sciences, their relationships with the natural sciences and the humanities, and the political and ideological import of academic social inquiry.

Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction. Social Scientists and Their Patrons in a Remarkable Era Chapter 1. Social Science on the Endless (and End-less?) Frontier: The Postwar NSF Debate Chapter 2. Defense and Offense in the Military Science Establishment: Toward a Technology of Human Behavior Chapter 3. Vision, Analysis, or Subversion?: The Rocky Story of the Behavioral Sciences at the Ford Foundation Chapter 4. Cultivating Hard-Core Social Research at the NSF: Protective Coloration and Official Negroes Conclusion Notes Index About the Author Introduction: social scientists and their patrons in a remarkable era Social science on the endless (and end-less?) frontier: the postwar NSF debate Defense and offense in the military science establishment: towards a technology of human behavior Vision, analysis, or subversion? The rocky story of the behavioral sciences at the Ford Foundation Cultivating hard-core social research at the NSF: protective coloration and official Negroes.