ABSTRACT
The impact of the Depression upon the research universities was initially cushioned by the extraordinary surge of prosperity that they experienced in the late 1920s and that persisted even while the country's financial system was deteriorating. The research universities were comparatively unscathed by the effects of the Depression until 1932, almost three years after the initial crash in the stock market. Well before the 1930s the federal government without doubt constituted one of the principal estates of American science. Realistically, the possibility that the federal government might become a significant patron of university science during the 1930s was probably slight. Medical grants went predominantly to promote psychiatry and neurological research; the natural science program was centered on molecular biology. Federal grants became a significant part of the university research system during Second World War. Under pressure of the wartime emergency, Washington began to contract for massive amounts of university research.
