This paper analyses the reception of the “Science Wars ” in the United Kingdom. It draws on a study of British academic journals, revealing a complex strategy employed to protect Science Studies, a discipline that emerged in the 1970s, from being contested. In 1999, a debate took place in Social Studies of Science, in which major authors of the field orchestrated a strong defence of their discipline. This carefully controlled debate constituted a turning point in the history of Science Studies and shows how much intellectual and institutional acknowledgement the discipline has gained in British higher education.