SCIENTIFIC CONTROL IN MATHEMATICAL REVIEWING AND GERMAN-UNITED-STATES-AMERICAN RELATIONS BETWEEN THE 2 WORLD-WARS

Reflections of American mathematicians on the German leadership in mathematical reviewing between the two World Wars reveal one aspect of the rise of American mathematics to worldwide importance. Singular political events such as the mass exodus of German mathematicians and the interference in the work of the then dominant German Zentralblatt led to the foundation of the American Mathematical Reviews in 1940. A look at German national competition in mathematical reviewing during the 1930s (Jahrbuch and Zentralblatt), however, reveals deeper disciplinary as well as ideological and political roots of the ''control function'' of scientific reviewing that are not necessarily connected to international competition. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.