How the NSF became an important yet controversial patron for the
social sciences, influencing debates over their scientific status and
social relevance.
In the early Cold War years, the U.S. government established the
National Science Foundation (NSF), a civilian agency that soon became
widely known for its dedication to supporting first-rate science. The
agency's 1950 enabling legislation made no mention of the social
sciences, although it included a vague reference to "other sciences."
Nevertheless, as Mark Solovey shows in this book, the NSF also soon
became a major--albeit controversial--source of public funding for them.
Solovey's analysis underscores the long-term impact of early
developments, when the NSF embraced a "scientistic" strategy wherein the
natural sciences represented the gold standard, and created a social
science program limited to "hard-core" studies. Along the way, Solovey
shows how the NSF's efforts to support scholarship, advanced training,
and educational programs were shaped by landmark scientific and
political developments, including McCarthyism, Sputnik, reform
liberalism during the 1960s, and a newly energized conservative movement
during the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, he assesses the NSF's relevance in
a "post-truth" era, questions the legacy of its scientistic strategy,
and calls for a separate social science agency--a National Social
Science Foundation.
Solovey's study of the battles over public funding is crucial for
understanding the recent history of the social sciences as well as
ongoing debates over their scientific status and social value.
