Abstract

This article uses a worldwide database of Rockefeller fellows as a primary material to study the mobilisation of American universities after World War II and the emergence of the so-called «Cold War science». To address this question, I have extracted from the database a corpus of 102 fellows (and 111 fellowships), made up of academics to whom the Rockefeller Foundation awarded fellowships to encourage their reintegration into the university circuit after serving in the army during the World War II. The analysis of this corpus provides some answers to three problems addressed by scholarship in Cold War science. First, it shows the necessity to go back at least to the interwar period to understand the development of certain Cold War disciplines, in particular area studies. Second, it shows that the partnership between foundations and universities is intellectual and not just financial or technical. Third, it shows the diversity of fellows’ individual careers, leading us to refine the notion of «Cold War science», in line with recent scholarship in the field.