Creating a “High-Minded Enterprise”: Vannevar Bush and Postwar Science Policy

Vannevar Bush is a towering figure in US science and technology policy. A science adviser to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman during and after World War II, he mobilized the US research community in support of the war effort and was a major figure in the creation of the National Science Foundation.

Although his influence on the history and institutions of US science and technology is unparalleled, the full breadth of Bush’s thinking remains underappreciated today. We talk with writer and educator G. Pascal Zachary, Bush’s biographer and editor of a new collection of his writings, about this remarkable polymath, the background behind his landmark report, Science, the Endless Frontier, and his surprising legacy for the information age.

Links:

• The Essential Writings of Vannevar Bush, edited by G. Pascal Zachary.
• Faith & Science, an excerpt from a 1955 letter Vannevar Bush wrote to employees and supporters of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
• Beyond the Endless Frontier, an article series from Issues that grapples with Bush’s legacy for today’s science policy.