Nobel prestige surged after World War II as America’s Cold War science hegemony rose

Evidence

Friedman dates the elevation of the prizes in public esteem to the period immediately following World War II, especially in the United States. This timing corresponds to the destruction of German science, the military assumption of science policy in the US, and the fascination with the role of science in the Cold War. Under these dramatic shifts, Sweden sought to realign itself relative to the new world hegemons; the league tables turned definitively in America’s favor; this was the period when Nobels were widely promoted to the general public as the canonization of the heroes exemplifying what was best in the human race. It is often said that the Nobels are awarded for achievements, not to people; but both Alfred Nobel’s own will and the ceremony surrounding the modern prizes suggest otherwise. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 455

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Cold War physics contraction pushed scientists into banks as quants, fueling the crisis — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 481; Twentieth-century attention science was driven by Cold War input-output thinking — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!: A Manifesto of the…, 155; The Cold War paradigm dominated despite blind spots and anomalies (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Twentieth-century attention science was driven by Cold War input-output thinking #expands (0.85) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 155
• The Cold War paradigm dominated despite blind spots and anomalies #expands (0.78)
• Bush administration framed Iraq war using World War II analogies #exemplifies (0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2331