ABSTRACT
In attempting to form any adequate estimate of the work of The Rockefeller Foundation in its first four decades one qualifying circumstance needs to be stressed: almost from its birth it was plunged into the cataclysmic years of the twentieth century. Within a few months after it was launched came Sarajevo and the First World War. The Foundation was a child of the era in which it was born, and it has been shaped by its environment. In spite of this limiting circumstance, the contributions of the Foundation to the intellectual life of the world and the well-being of men can scarcely be questioned. A corollary difficulty in the management of foundations, as far as their programs are concerned, relates to their fear of being overreached or imposed upon. A foundation fulfills its unique promise when it works on the frontiers of knowledge and experience, rather than in the more settled areas behind.
