In this volume the different facets of J.D. Bernal's life and work are recounted and assessed. He was a crystallographer, persistent writer on the social implications of science, an early foe of pseudo-scientific racism, a Marxist thinker and a campaigner for peace and civil rights.
Part 1: What Science Does: Introductory, Historical, The Existing Organization of Scientific Research in Britain, Science in Education, The Efficiency of Scientific Research, The Application of Science, Science and War and International Science.
Bernal's monumental work, Science in History, was the first full attempt to analyse the reciprocal relations of science and society throughout history, from the perfection of the flint hand-axe to the hydrogen bomb.
