Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T22:15:41.829Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

To “Administer the Present”

Clark Kerr and the Purpose of the Postwar American Research University

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Ethan Schrum
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores the intellectual and institutional contexts of the seminal ideas about the American research university expressed in Clark Kerr’s book The Uses of the University (1963). In particular, it suggests how Kerr’s relationship to the administrative science movement, an important thread of postwar American social science, shaped his concept of the university. It focuses special attention on an important yet little-known 1957 speech in which Kerr suggested that the university’s purpose was increasingly to “administer the present.” The article concludes by showing how the development of the University of California’s new campus at Irvine in the 1960s reflected his ideas about relating social science theory to administering the present.

Type
Special Section: The Uses of the University: After Fifty Years
Information
Social Science History , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , Winter 2012 , pp. 499 - 523
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, Andrew (1988) The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Alberts, Robert C. (1986) Pitt: The Story of the University of Pittsburgh, 1787–1987. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Aldrich, Daniel G. (1964) Letter to James G. March, August 11, Central Records Unit Records, AS-004, Box 128, Folder: Ad Hoc Committee on Public Policy Research Organization 1963–1965, University of California, Irvine, Archives.Google Scholar
Archibald, Kathleen (1964) “Draft proposal for a university-wide policy research organization,” June 8, Central Records Unit Records, AS-004, Box 128, Folder: Ad Hoc Committee on Public Policy Research Organization 1963–1965, University of California, Irvine, Archives.Google Scholar
Biehn, Kersten Jacobson (2006) “Improving mankind: Philanthropic foundations and the transformation of American university research between the world wars.” PhD diss., Rice University.Google Scholar
Bottom, William P. (2009) “Organizing intelligence: Development of behavioral science and the research based model of business education.” Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 45 (3): 253–83.Google Scholar
Calkins, Robert (1940) Letter to Robert G. Sproul, October 1, Office of the President Records, CU-5 Series 4, Box 8, Folder 4, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Calkins, Robert (1957) “The economy and the university,” manuscript of speech given at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, March 5, Clark Kerr Personal and Professional Papers, CU-302, Carton 12, Folder 20, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Calkins, Robert (1964) Letter to Clark Kerr, August 12, Office of the President Records, CU-5 Series 5, Box 111, Folder 10, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1954) “Minutes of the seventh meeting of the board of directors, June 28,” Clark Kerr Personal and Professional Papers, CU-302, Carton 9, Folder 37, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Churchman, C. West (2008) Curriculum vitae, West Churchman’s home page, www.cnr.berkeley.edu/~schultz/people/churchman_cv.html (accessed November 15, 2008).Google Scholar
Collins, Robert M. (1994) “Growth liberalism in the sixties: Great societies at home and grand designs abroad,” in Farber, David R. (ed.) The Sixties: From Memory to History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press: 11–44.Google Scholar
Critchlow, Donald T. (1993) “Think tanks, antistatism, and democracy: The nonpartisan ideal and policy research in the United States, 1913–1987,” in Lacey, Michael J.Furner, Mary O. (eds.) The State and Social Investigation in Britain and the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 279–322.Google Scholar
Crowther-Heyck, Hunter (2005) Herbert A. Simon: The Bounds of Reason in Modern America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Demerath, Nicholas J.McEwen, William J.Avery, Robert W.Van Houten, Donald R.Rushing, William A. (1974) “James D. Thompson: A memorial.” Administrative Science Quarterly 19 (1): 1–5.Google Scholar
Douglass, John Aubrey (2000) The California Idea and American Higher Education: 1850 to the 1960 Master Plan. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Drucker, Peter (1955) Letter to Clark Kerr, February 9, Clark Kerr Personal and Professional Papers, CU-302, Carton 6, Folder 25, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Drucker, Peter (1969) The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to Our Changing Society. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Erickson, Jan (1998) Transcription of an oral history interview with Ivan and Birk Hinderaker, June 5, www.ucrhistory.ucr.edu/pdf/hinderakeri.pdf (accessed November 10, 2008).Google Scholar
Fontaine, Philippe (2010) “Stabilizing American society: Kenneth Boulding and the integration of the social sciences, 1943–1980.” Science in Context 23 (2): 1–45.Google Scholar
Geiger, Roger L. (1993) Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities since World War II. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gilman, Nils (2003) Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Gilman, Nils (2006) “The prophet of post-Fordism: Peter Drucker and the legitimation of the corporation,” in Lichtenstein, Nelson (ed.) American Capitalism: Social Thought and Political Economy in the Twentieth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press: 109–33.Google Scholar
Grether, E. T. (1957) Letter to Clark Kerr, March 29, Clark Kerr Personal and Professional Papers, CU-302, Carton 12, Folder 20, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hinderaker, Ivan (1962) “A provisional academic plan for the Irvine campus, University of California, December 1962.” Clark Kerr Personal and Professional Papers, CU-302, Carton 4, Folder 40, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hinderaker, Ivan (1963) “The study of administration: Interdisciplinary dimensions.” Western Political Science Quarterly 16 (3): 5–12.Google Scholar
Isaac, Joel (2007) “The human sciences in Cold War America.” Historical Journal 50 (3): 725–46.Google Scholar
Jessup, John K.Stevenson, AdlaiMacLeish, ArchibaldSarnoff, DavidGraham, BillyGardner, John W.Rossiter, ClintonWohlstetter, AlbertReston, JamesLippmann, Walter (1960) The National Purpose. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1950a) “The distribution of authority and its relation to policy,” in Chalmers, W. EllisonDerber, MiltonMcPherson, William H. (eds.) Problems and Policies of Dispute Settlement and Wage Stabilization during World War II. Washington: US Bureau of Labor Statistics: 291–321.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1950b) Letter to Robert G. Sproul, December 10, Office of the President Records, CU-5 Series 3, Box 41, Folder 28, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1954) Letter to Robert G. Sproul, March 4, Office of the President Records, CU-5 Series 3, Box 41, Folder 13, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1955) Letter to Robert G. Sproul, March 14, Office of the President Records, CU-5 Series 3, Box 33, Folder 6, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1956) Business Leadership and Economic Development. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1957a) Letter to Robert Calkins, May 3, Clark Kerr Personal and Professional Papers, CU-302, Carton 12, Folder 20, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1957b) Letter to William H. Whyte, August 12, Clark Kerr Personal and Professional Papers, CU-302, Carton 12, Folder 20, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1958) “The schools of business administration,” in University of Pittsburgh (ed.) New Dimensions of Learning in a Free Society. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press: 63–74.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1963) The Uses of the University. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1964) Letter to Daniel G. Aldrich, May 21, Central Records Unit Records, AS-004, Box 128, Folder: Ad Hoc Committee on Public Policy Research Organization 1963–1965, University of California, Irvine, Archives.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (2001–3) The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949–1967. 2 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kerr, ClarkDunlop, John T.Harbison, Frederick H.Myers, Charles A. (1960) Industrialism and Industrial Man: The Problems of Labor and Management in Economic Growth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kerr, ClarkSiegel, Abraham (1955) “The structuring of the labor force in industrial society: New dimensions and new questions.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 8 (2): 151–68.Google Scholar
Khurana, Rakesh (2007) From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kraemer, Kenneth L. (2008) Author interview, Irvine, CA, January 8.Google Scholar
Kraemer, Kenneth L.Perry, James L. (1980) “Camelot revisited: Public administration education in a generic school,” in Birkhead, Guthrie S.Carroll, James D. (eds.) Education for Public Service, 1980. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs: 87–102.Google Scholar
Kuklick, Bruce (2006) Blind Oracles: Intellectuals and War from Kennan to Kissinger. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lemov, Rebecca M. (2005) World as Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Litchfield, Edward H. (1956) “Notes on a general theory of administration.” Administrative Science Quarterly 1 (1): 3–29.Google Scholar
March, James G. (1963) Letter to Ivan Hinderaker, November 1, Samuel C. McCulloch Oral Histories, AS-033, Box 5, Folder: James G. March, 1973 August 8, University of California, Irvine, Archives.Google Scholar
March, James G. (1972 [1970]) “Making artists out of pedants,” in Stodgill, Ralph M. (ed.) The Process of Model-Building in the Behavioral Sciences. New York: Norton Library: 54–75.Google Scholar
March, James G.Simon, Herbert A. (1958) Organizations. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Miller, James G. (1953) Letter to Clark Kerr, November 16, Clark Kerr Personal and Professional Papers, CU-302, Carton 9, Folder 44, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Morawski, Jill G. (1986) “Organizing knowledge and behavior at Yale’s Institute of Human Relations.” Isis 77 (2): 219–42.Google Scholar
Morse, Philip M.Kimball, George E. (1951) Methods of Operations Research. Cambridge: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Musolf, Lloyd D. (1966) Presentation at Western Political Science Association, March 1966, Office of the President Records, CU-5 Series 8, Box 74, Folder 1, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott (1956) “Suggestions for a sociological approach to the theory of organizations—I.” Administrative Science Quarterly 1 (1): 63–85.Google Scholar
Pelfrey, Patricia A. (2004) A Brief History of the University of California, 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
“Pitt’s big thinker” (1962) Time, September 7, search.time.com/results.html?N=0&Nty=1&p=0&cmd=tags&srchCat=Time&Ntt=Pitt%27s+big+thinker&x=0&y=0.Google Scholar
President’s Commission on National Goals (1960) Goals for Americans. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Riley, Paddy (2006) “Clark Kerr: From the industrial to the knowledge economy,” in Lichtenstein, Nelson (ed.) American Capitalism: Social Thought and Political Economy in the Twentieth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press: 71–87.Google Scholar
Robin, Ron (2001) The Making of the Cold War Enemy: Culture and Politics in the Military-Industrial Complex. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rockefeller Brothers Fund (1961) Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Ross, Arthur M. (1960) Letter to Glenn T. Seaborg, July 12, Records of the Office of the Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley, 1952–[ongoing], CU-149, Box 43, Folder 32, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Schrum, Ethan (2011) “Clark Kerr’s early career, social science, and the American university,” in Geiger, Roger L. (ed.) Iconic Leaders in Higher Education. Perspectives on the History of Higher Education 28. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction: 193–222.Google Scholar
Shapin, Steven (2008) The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Simon, Herbert A. (1945) Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization. Chicago: Published by author.Google Scholar
Soo, MaryCarson, Cathryn (2004) “Managing the research university: Clark Kerr and the University of California.” Minerva 42 (3): 215–36.Google Scholar
Sproul, Robert G. (1940) Letter to Robert Calkins, August 31, Office of the President Records, CU-5 Series 4, Box 8, Folder 4, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Stadtman, Verne A. (1970) The University of California, 1868–1968. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Swanson, G. A. (2009) “James Grier Miller (1916–),” International Society for the Systems Sciences, projects.isss.org/James_Grier_Miller (accessed June 8, 2009).Google Scholar
Thompson, James D. (1956a) “Editorial.” Administrative Science Quarterly 1 (1): 1.Google Scholar
Thompson, James D. (1956b) “On building an administrative science.” Administrative Science Quarterly 1 (1): 102–11.Google Scholar
University of California (1965) Preliminary Announcement University of California, Irvine Academic Program, 1965–1966. Irvine: University of California.Google Scholar
Untitled proposal (n.d.) Records of the Office of the Chancellor, University of California, Berkeley, 1952–[ongoing], CU-149, Box 43, Folder 32, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Waring, Stephen P. (1991) Taylorism Transformed: Scientific Management Theory since 1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Waring, Stephen P. (1995) “Cold calculus: The Cold War and operations research.” Radical History Review (63): 29–51.Google Scholar
Whyte, William Holly (1956) The Organization Man. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Wren, Daniel A. (1972) The Evolution of Management Thought. New York: Ronald.Google Scholar