40th Anniversary of JNS Context and Contingency in the History of Post World War II Nursing Scholarship in the United States Julie Fairman Purpose: To examine the context for the development of nursing scholarship post World War II. Methods: Historiographical analysis of the social, political, and cultural context of nurs- ing scholarship in the postwar period, with an understanding of how this context shaped nursing scholarship. Findings: The development of nursing scholarship was influenced by three contextual strands: Nurses’ use of experiential clinical knowledge to situate practice questions in the changing clinical care milieu of the 1950s to the 1970s; The development of an intellectual genealogy through new educational opportunities at the baccalaureate and graduate level from the 1960s to the 1980s that provided the foundation for reintegrating practice and education; and the creation of a growing cadre of nurse scholars and their political influence on the re- lationship between power, knowledge, and clinical practice. These formulations are critical for understanding how scholarship changed over time and help us understand contempo- rary clinical practice, its authority structure, how it helps us define a body of knowledge from which practice proceeds, and then, how it responds to public demands. Conclusions: Nursing scholarship is nested in a particular social, political, economic, and cultural context. This context also determines how and why it is generated, debated, and used. Its production does not always follow a rational, logical pattern. Nursing knowledge development is influenced as much by the political underpinnings of health care as it is by social, economic, cultural, and scientific foundations. [Key words: nursing scholarship, 20th century nursing history, graduate education] JOURNAL OF NURSING SCHOLARSHIP, 2008; 40:1, 4–11. C 2008 SIGMA THETA TAU INTERNATIONAL. * * * N ursing is a practice field, and so the knowledge gained through scholarship should help nurses un- derstand and develop strategies for patient care. Nursing knowledge development is at times idiosyncratic and accidental, and influenced as much by the political un- derpinnings of health care as it is by social, economic, cul- tural, and scientific foundations (Kohler, 1982; Rosenberg, 2007). In the sometimes chaotic world of patient care, the contextual frames and creative thinking of nurse scholars and practitioners coalesces to generate important ways of establishing order, defining what nurses do, and the bound- aries of their practice. These same forces help generate a language to describe how nursing contributes to patient care (D’Antonio & Fairman, 2004; Meleis, 2007). Acknowledging the early formations of nursing schol- arship and how they changed over time helps us understand contemporary clinical practice, its authority structure, how a body of knowledge from which practice proceeds is de- fined, and then, how it responds to public demands. The discipline indeed owes a great debt to early nurse thinkers. Their efforts and accomplishments fashioned the founda- tion from which our understanding of nursing knowledge flows. But, perhaps an equally important focus that puts the work of nursing scholars in perspective and makes evident their enduring contribution to nursing are the larger contex- tual forces that make nursing knowledge so contingent and integral to practice, teaching, and research. In this paper I will address a foundational historical question: What are some of the contextual forces that in- fluenced nursing scholarship in the post World War II pe- riod. This period is typically from 1945 to 1965, but will Julie Fairman, RN, PhD, FAAN, Xi , Associate Professor, Class of 1940 Bi- centennial Term Chair, Director, Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadel- phia. The author thanks the faculty of the Bates Center for their suggestions and advice, as well as Dr. Afaf Meleis for her comments and insight. This work was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investiga- tor Award in Health Policy Research. Correspondence to Dr. Fairman, 217 Glenn Rd., Ardmore, PA 19003. E-mail: fairman@nursing.upenn.edu Accepted for publication December 11, 2007. 4 First Quarter 2008 Journal of Nursing Scholarship