Die Frühgeschichte des Fulbright Program in Österreich

This book describes and analyses, for the first time, implementation and early years of the Fulbright Program in Austria. Based on an extensive range of historical documents (found in the archives of the Fulbright Program in Vienna, and other archives in Vienna, Washington, and Arkansas), it becomes clear that this form of post-war/early cold war US cultural diplomacy brought a series of innovations to Austrian higher education. For example, the procedure of selecting Fulbright grantees was based on the qualification of the applicants, and not on personal ties with Austrian professors. Similarly, the financial and organizational independence of the Fulbright Commission in Vienna was unique in a time when all other budgetary decision had to be approved by the ministry of education. Within the first 15 years of its existence, the program managed to send several thousand Austrian students and scholars abroad, and, even more important for that time, channeled approximately the same amount of Americans to Austrian higher education institutions. Their experiences and impact is thoroughly assessed. It has been argued before that educational exchange has had a lasting effect on the impression of the US in its transatlantic allies. By exploiting unique historical data, this claim is, for the first time, critically assessed. Furthermore, by explicitely addressing the influence of American cultural diplomacy, the book also sheds light on a period in the history of the higher education system in Austria that has been, so far, not well investigated.