In The Land of the Blind: American International Studies in the 1930s

Abstract

Prior to World War II, American interest in international studies existed primarily outside the university. Missionaries and their redomesticated offspring, foreign cor respondents, members of the Foreign Service, and free-lance writers figured far more prominently in the American in ternational studies community than did academics who recognized the need to maintain close ties with non-academic audiences. These ties became unraveled after World War II when academic international studies experienced tremendous growth, but they must be reknit if international studies is to remain a vital intellectual enterprise in the era of the post expansionary university.