A Beautiful Mind

Founded in 1746, Princeton was not regarded as a particularly reputable academic establishment. In the early twentieth century, its reputation had not improved and it was still seen as “an overgrown prep school” (51) particularly lacking in scientific talent.

This lack mirrored a general failing of American universities of the time. While European universities were responsible for revolutionary progress in mathematics and physics spearheaded by figures such as Albert Einstein and mathematician David Hilbert, America was falling far behind. However, substantial donations by the Rockefellers and the Bambergers would soon change that. Princeton was able to establish research-professorships to import European talent. When the dedicated research institution, the Institute for Advanced Study, was set up in Princeton, it even managed to lure in Einstein himself.

During the Second World War, further funding flooded in from the government and military, which were finding that mathematics was essential to everything from planning tactics to developing the A-bomb. The conflict had “enriched and invigorated American mathematics” and, after it ended, the government was still extremely keen to fund “pure research” (56).

When Nash arrives in Princeton in 1948, he finds himself in the center of American mathematics, a place filled with optimism where the students feel themselves part of “a great intellectual revolution” (57).