A New World Symphony and Penn’s Peculiar Practices, 1945–1970

The modern world began with three very big BANGS. Their reverberating echoes announced America’s assumption of world leadership in politics, economy, and power. That power was based upon the unrivaled superiority of U.S.-basic scientific research. The trio of “atomic” bombs that exploded at Almogordo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki brought World War II to a rapid close. The range and depth of science, technology, and medicine were both immediate cause and also consequence of this sequence and of the long, slow Cold War that followed. The emergence of—and American leadership in—the academic discipline of history of science, took place within this framework. Where Harvard led, other major universities were quick to follow. Conspicuous by its absence over the years from 1945 to 1970 was the University of Pennsylvania. This essay explores why that was so.