Now returned to print with a new preface by the author, Science in the Federal Government remains one of the finest and most comprehensive surveys of the history of American science. A. Hunter Dupree traces the evolution of the relationship between government and science, emphasizing the continuous debate over the form, implementation, even the desirability of national science policy.

From the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to the onset of World War II, Dupree shows, federal involvement in science centered on key national interests -- geographical exploration and expansion, agriculture and conservation, medicine and public health, industry and the military. Dupree examines the roles and the impact of significant individuals and such institutions as the Smithsonian, the Geological Survey, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Institutes of Health. In an extensive new preface, he discusses developments through the 1980s, paying special attention to the expansion of government-university partnership in the wake of Sputnik.