Routledge Library Editions: 20th Century Science
2 total works
This book offers an overview of a huge range of scientific achievements in the 20th century, specifically in the field of applied science. The majority of the essays originally appeared in papers and journals such as the Daily Worker, New Statesman and Nation, Science and Society and Nature.
Insofar as one theme runs through them, it is the application of scientific knowledge for the benefit of human society. The author is unashamed to present his perspective on some of the topics discussed in the context of his commitment to Marxism. This collection of essays, first published in 1947, thus offers an intriguing glimpse of mid-20th century attitudes towards science, and specifically to the possibilities of a scientific approach to the full spectrum of human endeavour as they were perceived in the aftermath of the Second World War, at a time when the Soviet Union and its creed still seemed ascendant.
The Progress of Science
by J. G. Crowther, Sir James Jeans, William Bragg, E.V. Appleton, E. Mellanby, J.B.S. Haldane, and Julian Huxley
The Progress of Science, first published in 1934, was originally intended to help the interested reader develop their understanding of the natural sciences as they stood in the period leading up to the Second World War. This intention was predicated on the belief that the spirit of science can only have a positive influence on human society, and that when enough people are sufficiently scientifically-minded the problems of civilisation will be resolved through the steady application of scientific principles.
Covering the full range of the distinct disciplines– physics, chemistry, biology – this collection offers a fascinating window into the attitudes towards science at a time when the full extent of its potentially catastrophic potential was about to be realised across the world.