The great bulk of historical scholarship of American social science has focused on three earlier eras: the origins of professional social science in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the interwar era and especially the 1930s, when large numbers of social scientists participated in the intellectual and political life of the New Deal; and WWII through the first couple Cold War decades, a period of enormous expansion in academic social science and significant social science influence on domestic and foreign public policy, especially during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. In the last decade or so a number of important historical studies have focused on the 1960s and subsequent decades. Yet this latter era, which the present symposium concentrates on, has received much less attention than the earlier ones. Building on the insights of recent historical scholarship, this symposium also seeks to illuminate the “work” done by social scientists in the wider society regarding prominent issues including poverty, mental health, research ethics, educational reform, sexuality, race relations, crime, economic growth, and third world development.

Specifically, this symposium examines how American social science, psychology, and economics became involved in ideological struggles and associated public policy controversies from 1961 to 2001. Papers presented by an international group of twelve scholars from Canada, the U.S., France, and England explore wider trends and issues in conjunction with specific case studies.