This book contains essays on the historical development of the knowledge base upon which public policies depend.

Foreword Michael J. Lacey; Part I. Knowledge and Government: 1. Social investigation, social knowledge, and the state: an introduction Michael J. Lacey and Mary O. Furner; 2. The science of the legislator: the Enlightenment heritage Donald Winch; Part II. Empiricism and the New Liberalism: 3. Experts, investigators, and the state in 1860: British social scientists through American eyes Lawrence Goldman; 4. The world of the bureaus: government and the positivist project in the late nineteenth century Michael J. Lacey; 5. The republican tradition and the new liberalism: social investigation, state building, and social learning in the gilded age Mary O. Furner; 6. The state and social investigation in Britain, 1880¿1914 Roger Davidson; Part III. Pluralism, Skepticism, and the Modern State: 7. Think tanks, antistatism, and democracy: the nonpartisan ideal and policy research in the United States, 1913¿87 Donald T. Critchlow; 8. Social investigation and political learning in the financing of World War I W. Elliot Brownlee; 9. The state and social investigation in Britain between the world wars Barry Supple; 10. War mobilization, institutional learning, and state building in the United States, 1917¿41 Robert D. Cuff; Index.