The Brookings Institution history

You'll see a lot of rows, with the earliest being from 1919 (in Brookings' days as the Institute for Government Research). Note that most but not all publications are books.

Brookings economists played a large role in crafting the 1921 legislation that created the first United States Bureau of the Budget.

In 1927, the institutes and the school merged to form the present-day Brookings Institution, with the mission to promote, conduct and foster research “in the broad fields of economics, government administration and the political and social sciences.”

On his death in 1932, however, his financial support ended, and the institution had to find new funding sources.

In 1948, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI), praised Brookings for a report that would become “the Congressional ‘work-sheet’ in respect to this complex and critical problem.” (Learn more about Brookings’s role in the Marshall Plan »)

In 1952 the institution underwent significant reorganization, during which the three-field division of research into centers for economic, government, and foreign policy studies was developed.

Nearly a year before the 1960 election, Brookings governmental studies expert Laurin Henry published Presidential Transitions, designed to help the winning candidate—John F. Kennedy or Richard M. Nixon—launch his administration smoothly.

On September 29, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson helped mark Brookings’s fiftieth anniversary with an address on public service and the importance of America’s cities. (Learn more about LBJ’s address »)

He began a series of studies of program choices for the federal budget in 1969 titled "Setting National Priorities." He also expanded the Foreign Policy Studies Program to include research in national security and defense.

After Gordon died in 1976, Gilbert Y. Steiner, director of the governmental studies program, was appointed the fourth and acting president of the Brookings Institution by the board of trustees.

The institution’s research into improving the United States tax system, spearheaded by Director of Economic Studies Joseph Pechman, led to the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which was a significant congressional bill that introduced important simplifications to the United States income tax code.

Bill Clinton’s welfare-reform legislation that was signed into law in 1996.

For instance, for the September 11 attacks, look at rows in the full timeline for 2001 in particular.

In 2002 Brookings launched the Saban Center for Middle East Policy as its new hub of research directed at United States foreign policy in the Middle East.

Jump up ↑ Rich, Andrew (Spring 2006). "War of Ideas: Why Mainstream and Liberal Foundations and the Think Tanks they Support are Losing in the War of Ideas in American Politics" (PDF). Stanford Social Innovation Review.

In July 2007, Brookings announced the creation of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform to be directed by senior fellow Mark McClellan, and in October 2007 the creation of the Brookings Doha Center directed by fellow Hady Amr in Qatar.

Since 2008, Brookings amassed nearly $20 million in contracts and grants from 50 agencies – including the Obama Administration’s Office of the President.

In 2011, Talbott inaugurated the Brookings India Office.

Jump up ↑ "2013 RANKINGS" (PDF). carnegieendowment.org.

The red vertical line (at July 2015) represents the start of mobile–web and mobile–app data retrievals.

In 2016, the Brookings Institution celebrated its 100th year as a leader in policy research at the local, national and global levels.

In October 2017, former general John R. Allen became the eighth president of Brookings.

As of June 30, 2019, Brookings had an endowment of $377.2 million.

The following table summarizes per-year mentions on Google Scholar as of May 20, 2021.