Just after the close of World War II, America's political and scientific leaders reached an informal consensus on how science could best serve the nation and how government might best support science. The consensus lasted a germination before it broke under the pressures created by the Vietnam War. Since then the nation has struggled to reestablish shared beliefs about the means and goals of science policy.

In American Science Policy Since World War II, author Bruce L. R. Smith makes sense of the break between science and government and identifies the patterns on postwar science affairs. He also examines what might otherwise seem a miscellany of separate episodes actually constituted a continuing debate of national importance that was closely linked to broad political and economic trends.

Smith's precise and unique analysis gives both the scholar and historian a better understanding of where we are and how we got there while casting a modest light on future policy directions.