Making the International Mind: Social Engineering for U.S. Global Power, 1898-1950

Lecture by Talya Zemach-Bersin, American Studies, Yale University.
Americans in the first half of the twentieth century embraced a surge of utopian enthusiasm for social engineering. They launched a far-reaching effort to usher in a new era of US global power by adjusting the psychologies and personalities of young Americans. Described after World War I as “mental disarmament” and after World War II as a “Manhattan Project of the Mind,” the theory proposed that the inner lives of human beings could be conditioned and controlled to order a dysfunctional modern world and lead to a harmonious world order created under US leadership. This talk examines the historical contexts and social scientific theories that inspired youth-focused experiments in social engineering.

Sponsored by Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, International Programs and Off-campus Study