CAPSHEW, James H. 1954-

PERSONAL: Born October 14, 1954, in Indianapolis, IN; son of Robert M., Sr. (an accountant) and Ruth E. (a homemaker; maiden name, Sipes) Capshew. Education: Indiana University, B.A., 1979; University of Pennsylvania, A.M., 1982; Ph.D., 1986. Hobbies and other interests: Bicycling, hiking, gardening.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Goodbody Hall 130, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Maryland, College Park, research associate in history, 1986-89; Indiana University, Bloomington, assistant professor, 1990-96, associate professor of history and philosophy of science and director of graduate studies, 1996—. Affiliated with City of Bloomington, Indiana, Environmental Commission, 1991. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, member of editorial board, 1998—.

MEMBER: History of Science Society, Forum for History of Human Science (chair, 1988-90), Cheiron Society, Midwestern Psychological Association (historian, 1989), Indiana Historical Society, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Graduate fellowship, National Science Foundation, 1980-84; Mellon graduate fellow, University of Pennsylvania, 1985-86; Joan Cahalin Robinson Prize, Society for the History of Technology, 1986.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Eliot Hearst) Psychology at Indiana University: A Centennial Review and Compendium, Indiana University Department of Psychology (Bloomington, IN), 1988.

Psychologists on the March: Science, Practice, and Professional Identity in America, 1929-1969 ("Cambridge Studies in the History of Psychology" series), Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor, with Philip C. Bantin) The Wells Archive: Exploring the World of Higher Education, Indiana University Libraries (Bloomington, IN), 2000.

Contributor to books, including The American Psychological Association: A Historical Perspective, edited by Rand B. Evans, Virginia S. Sexton, and Thomas C. Cadwallader, American Psychological Association (Washington, DC), 1992; and The Development of the Social Sciences in the United States and Canada: The Role of Philanthropy, edited by Theresa R. Richardson and Donald Fisher, Ablex Publishing (Greenwich, CT), 1999; Dictionary of American History, 3rd edition, edited by Stanley I. Kutler, Scribners (New York, NY), 2003. Contributor to professional journals, including American Psychologist, Osiris, Technology and Culture, Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, and Journal of the History of Sexuality. History of Psychology (American Psychological Association), consulting editor, 1997-2005.

SIDELIGHTS: James H. Capshew's Psychologists on the March: Science, Practice, and Professional Identity in America, 1929-1969 is a study of that period when the American Psychological Association grew from about one thousand to thirty thousand members. Capshew attributes this growth to World War II, when psychologists came out of their laboratories to engage in a broader effort. A group of psychologists began the Office of Psychological Personnel, for example, which emphasized the mobility of professionals, many of whom were placed in positions that called for not only expertise, but also interpersonal skills and common sense.

During the postwar period, the services of psychologists increased as funding was made available to agencies like the Veterans Administration. In addition, the profession received funding from private groups, including the Ford Foundation, and developed branches of the discipline that included personality research, personnel selection, training, and stress reduction. The public cast psychologists in the role of "cultural authorities on the human psyche."

Theodore M. Brown wrote in the Journal of American History that "with a deft hand, Capshew traces the struggle for preeminence between experimental and applied psychologists, the gender bias that substantially thwarted the career ambitions of women, [and] the multiple roles of psychologists during World War II." John A. Mills noted in Canadian Journal of History that "Capshew sets himself the daunting task of describing and explaining how American psychology propelled itself from the margins to the centre of American social life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

American Historical Review, Volume 106, 2001, Judith M. Hughes, review of Psychologists on the March: Science, Practice, and Professional Identity in America, 1929-1969, pp. 212-213.

Annals of Science, Volume 57, 2000, Kurt Danziger, review of Psychologists on the March, pp. 322-323.

Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Volume 74, 2000, Leila Zenderland, review of Psychologists on the March, pp. 856-857.

Canadian Journal of History, April, 2000, John A. Mills, review of Psychologists on the March: Science, Practice, and Professional Identity in America, 1929-1969, pp. 184-186.

Contemporary Psychology, Volume 45, 2000, Roger Smith, review of Psychologists on the March, pp. 637-638.

Isis, Volume 91, 2000, Donald S. Napoli, review of Psychologists on the March, pp. 637-638.

Journal of American History, March, 2001, Theodore M. Brown, review of Psychologists on the March, p. 1589.

Journal of the History of Medicine, Volume 55, 2000, Jill G. Morawski, review of Psychologists on the March, pp. 437-439.

Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, Volume 36, 2000, Richard T. von Mayrhauser, review of Psychologists on the March, pp. 46-49.

Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, Volume 10, 2001, Donald A. Dewsbury, review of Psychologists on the March, pp. 124-125.

Social History of Medicine, Volume 13, 2000, Nadine Weidman, review of Psychologists on the March, pp. 578-579.