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“Mr. Baxter’s history of the OSRD is a fine book, obviously one of the most important documents written so far about the war. The author has a reticent clear style admirably suited to pin down his refractory material... His preoccupation with technical detail has not diminished his grasp of wartime science as a whole.” — E. B. Garside, The New York Times
“[A] readable mixture of history and science... This volume covers the whole span of scientific development, radar and radar countermeasures, loran, proximity fuses, the Dukw and Weasel, incendiaries and flame throwers, military medicine, including discussion of high altitude effects, penicillin and insecticides, and finally the Manhattan project and the atomic bomb... This official history of OSRD should be required reading for admirals, generals, and all officers who ever expect some day to exist in the rarefied atmosphere of high level military and naval planning. This volume is the triumphant battle-cry of American men of science returning with their shields.” — Earl W. Thompson, Proceedings of the US Naval Institute
“This is the official history of the remarkable achievements of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II, by the President of Williams College.” — Robert Gale Woolbert, Foreign Affairs
“[An] admirable book.” — Richard E. Danielson, The Atlantic
“Here is one of the most significant books of World War II. It is, as Dr. Vannevar Bush says in a foreword, ‘the brief official history of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. It is the history of a rapid transition, from warfare as it has been waged for thousands of years by the direct clash of hordes of men, to a new type of warfare in which science becomes applied to destruction on a wholesale basis. It marks, therefore, a turning point in the broad history of civilization.’... The reader is constantly impressed by the valuable results obtained by the pooling of the work of British, Canadian, and American scientists... Throughout the entire book, one idea seems to stand out above all others, namely, that free men, working as a team, can outperform all the efforts of those who are driven by bureaucratic decrees.” — John W. Oliver, The American Historical Review
“This is a book for which American scientists have been waiting... it presents a clear, detailed, and yet stylistically most attractive account of the victory made possible by the civilian scientific research effort of our Nation during World War II... It will be difficult for anyone to read this book and not become an advocate of a strong, federally supported science organization to continue the research necessary for our future military preparedness and for the solution of basic peacetime problems as well.” — Leonard Carmichael, Science
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Born in Portland, Maine, James Phinney Baxter III (1893-1975), grandson of historian and mayor of Portland James Phinney Baxter, attended Portland High School and Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He graduated from Williams College as valedictorian with Phi Beta Kappa honors and earned M.A. degrees from Williams and Harvard University. Contracting tuberculosis while working in Wall Street, he went to recuperate in Colorado where he did graduate work in history and taught at Colorado College before joining the Harvard faculty in 1925; he received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1926. Baxter taught diplomatic history, naval history and international relations at Harvard from 1925 to 1937, progressing from instructor to full professor in 10 years, and for six years was master of Adams House.
Popular at Harvard, Baxter left reluctantly in 1937 to become the 10th President of Williams College, a position he held until 1961. Baxter transformed Williams into a school that put a premium on intellectual accomplishment, increased scholarships and student aid more than sixfold, cut way down on admissions from prep schools and quadrupled the college's budget for instruction. Williams enrollments increased during Baxter's presidency from 820 to 1,100, and the number of seniors entering graduate school rose from 25 to 50 percent.
Baxter took leave in World War II to recruit academic personnel for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and to serve as historian for the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD).
Baxter’s books are The Introduction of the Ironclad Warship (1933) and Scientists Against Time (1946). He wrote extensively for history and law journals and received 17 honorary degrees, including from Harvard and Columbia, for his contributions to education and history. He was a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Affairs and was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1928. In the 1950s, he was a member of the Gaither Commission, which studied the cold war.
