No Ivory Tower, in some ways, isincomplete because of Harvard's policy. The book'ssources include heavily redacted FBI documents andinterviews with many academics who feel they werebetrayed by the University.
Schrecker also received important help fromformer Corporation member William Marbury, aBaltimore lawyer. Marbury refused to give herCorporation documents, but he tried to helpconfirm some of Schrecker's facts by consultinghis own files from the period, the historian says.
Marbury's reluctance was based wholly on theUniversity policy. Schrecker writes in a footnoteto No Ivory Tower: "William Marbury had acomplete file on the cases and, though he wouldnot show it to me because he did not want to goagainst the University's policy, he referred to itthroughout the interview..."
Schrecker says several avenues remainunexplored because of the 50-year rule. "We don'tknow about the nature of Harvard's contacts withthe Defense Department during the McCarthy era[and] the Cold War, for example," she says.
Other important historical facts may be buriedin the archives, she adds. "We don't know what'sin many of these records because the Universityhas been unwilling to open them."
An Irony
Hershberg says the nature of the FBI'srelationship with Harvard during the McCarthy erais just one of the issues that cannot be fullyexplored because of the 50-year rule.
Hershberg's biography grew out of hisundergraduate thesis, which he submitted in 1982.When he resumed his research for the biography,Hershberg was able to convince Harvard to make anexception to the 50-year rule and give him limitedaccess to papers of Conant that did not relatedirectly to the University.
Conant, a prominent figure in the Manhattanproject, was president of Harvard from 1933 to1953. He died in 1978.
Hershberg says the 50-year rule kept him fromConant's papers from during and after World WarII. He says he found the rule most frustratingwhen he attempted to research Conant's role as "aCold War educator" between 1950 and 1952.
"The irony is that Harvard is a place allegedlydevoted to scholarship," Hershberg says. "But ithas the least developed policy for permittingscholarship on itself."