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Rethinking Cold War Universities: Some Recent Histories
- Journal of Cold War Studies
- The MIT Press
- Volume 5, Number 3, Summer 2003
- pp. 80-95
- Review
- Additional Information
Detailed research in archives and other primary sources has added a great deal to our understanding of American universities during the Cold War. Recent studies of the "Cold War University" describe the sometimes contradictory ambitions surrounding these institutions: faculty members seeking an escape from the classroom through external funding, administrators hoping to enhance their university's prestige and balance sheet, and government agencies promoting cutting-edge research with practical (usually military) applications. By examining four recent books on the topic, this article asks whether these impulses created a genuinely new institution—a "Cold War University"—or merely built on existing trends.