New Soviet film coming to city

A dramatic moment from the new Soviet film, Maximka, now showing in Toronto, which will be

seen in Vancouver next month when the Exhibition of Slavic Folk Art and Handicrafts tours the western —

provinces.

BOOKS

Bernal writes masterly work

in his new Science in History —

pean J. D. BERNAL is a
remarkable man. Not only
has he achieved great. distinction
~ in his scientific research — he is
a Royal Medallist of the Royal
Society — but he is a Stalin
Peace Prize winner.

High honors, indeed! But Ber-
nal is the same modest person
_ who, over a quarter of a century-
ago, was nicknamed “Sage” by
his friends. ,

Only a sage could have writ-
ten his latest book, Science in
History (obtainable here at the
People’s Cooperative Bookstore,
337 West Pender, price $8).
Only one who lived in two di-
mensions of time- could have
fonud the opportunity to write
nearly- 1,000 pages packed with
jnformation, in the midst of an
active scientific and political life.

so xt See

Here is the factual story of the
growth of scientific knowledge
from the earliest food-gathering
stage to the hydrogen bomb, from

“What'll | do now? He
surrendered!”

You can believe our story about
our FREE CREDIT because it’s
true and hundreds of our cus-
tomers have profited by it. Just
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the most primitive social group-
ings to the division of the world
into two societies today, from the
first myths and supernatural ex-
planations to the most modern
unity between reasoned analysis
and experimental evidence.

It is a scientific study of the his-

‘tory of science in society. Both |

the logic of science that presses
it on and the demands of society
that draws it on are laid bare.

Professor Bernal is able to.
thread his way through this vast
maze, because he is a Marxist,
and can therefore distinguish be’
tween wood and trees.

As the tempo of the Industrial
Revolution broadens out to em-

brace the whole world — the

‘USSR, China, so the scope of
his theme widens, until finally he
is writing an analysis of history.

Science at first forming a thin
thread of coloring matter in the
whole stream has diffused out-
wards to tinge every aspect of
social life. —

A = 9 ieee xt

The book falls into seven parts,
comprising 14 chapters with an
excellent index and bibliography.
Part I sketches the broad mean-¢
ing of science today, and the kind.
of problems it arouses.

Science in the ancient world
is presented in Part Il, from that
of early human society through

Greek science to the fall of the -

Roman Empire. Here is assembl:

ed material from a wide range of »

sources presented in concise form.

The feudal period, the contri-
bution of Islamic science, the
dominance of the scholastics, of
the Church and the mystics of the
medieval period—all in Part. Ill
_—bring us in Part IV to the birth
‘of modern science.

Here emerges — not without
struggle and martyrdom — a
rational picture of the solar sys-
tems, the laws of mechanics aud
all the groundwork necessary for
the beginnings of the Industrial
Revolution. ;

In Parts, V, VI, and VII, Bernal
is at his Best. The modern world

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a:

is beginning to take shape, and
it is the modern world with which
he is familiar. The workshop is
giving way to the factory, the
craftsman to the industrial work-
er, and a proletariat is emerg-
ing. :

In the 17th century the scien- |

tist was a natural philosopher,
one hardly distinguishable from
those who lived by court patron-
age. :

Today, engineers, physicists,
chemists, botanists, metallurgists,
biochemists, biophysicists, mathe-
maticians—all combine to form”
a new and socially revolutionary
profession:

As Bernal significantly ‘points |

out, there are more scientists in
the Netherlands today than in
the whole of Africa and South
America. Ge

Capitalism and the scientists .
created each other. Science chal-
lengese the mysticism of the
Churches and the escapism of
the philosophers, but it has also
made total war. Like Mahomet’s
coffin, the hydrogen bomb re-
mains poised uncertainly over
the heads of the peoples of the
world.

% Eo %

To grasp this book one must
first see its skeleton, the sweep
of history it covers, and then
fill in the fleshy parts with the
mass of illustration the author
has at his command.

To have breathed the breath
of life into this skeleton so that
the living past’ marches into the
present and points the direction
of advance is no mean achieve-
ment. . This book puts at your
elbow the facts to enable you to
understand the world into which
you are moving. 34,

Some may assert that where
evidence is unavailable in the
past, Bernal gives conjecture as
if it were fact. This is almost
inevitable in any connected his-
tory. Here and there are evi-
dences of haste, lack of time to
weigh up the full import of what
is said.

There is however, only one
thing really, wrong—the price.
So you should get your public
library immediately to purchase
a number of copies—either that,
or persuade your family to give
you it now as a Christmas pres-
ent.

—H. LEVY

‘government officials,

Inspiring theme but

ANGSTERS shave taken over
so much of American life
that it is not particularly sur-

prising that they should have got-

a grip on one or two trade union
branches.

Racketeers did, in fact, take
control of a union local of New
York dockers, turning it into an
organization for theft and black-
mail, which drew profit on every
bale of goods which '! passed
through the docks.

Thugs were employed to beat
up or kill men who fought the
rackets, and so complete was the
organization’s .mastery that no

man could work as a’.New York

docker unless he kicked back
part of his wages in inflated
“union dues” and generally co-

~ operated with the racketeers.

So the story of how this gang
was broken up ought to be an in-
spiring one. It ought to show
how the racketeers’ original suc-
cess was only possible because of
the corruption rampant among
police and
businessmen.

It ought to show, too, how fear-

less men who stood for honest

unignism fought the racketeers
and kept.up the fight until the
police were forced to do their
job. :
200 SE on ew ec
This inspiration is lacking in
On the Waterfront. In basing its

-story on the breaking up of the

New York dock racket it pur-

ports, in its own pompous in-

troductory words, to show how
“self-appointed tyrants can be
defeated by right-thinking peo-
ple in a vital democracy.”

In fact it shows nothing of the

A deposit will
hold articles.
Special discount
to all Tribune
readers. Bring
this ad with you.

CASTLE —

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752 Granville St.

uninspiring picture

sort. The self-appointed tyrants
are not defeated by right-think-
ing people, but by the confession
of an oafish accomplice to a mur-
der. And “vital democracy”
never puts in an appearance.

There is no hint that anybody
except the local Catholic priest
has any idea of what a real trade
union ought to be. And there is
no hint that any of the racket-
eers’ murder victims had any
thought of trying to organize 2
real trade union branch.

The picture turns out instead
to be a noisy collection of emo-
tional tricks designed to show
that the stoolpigeon is a much- —
misunderstoood hero of -Ameri- |
can life and that to testify before
an investigating committee is the
greatest act of selfless public
service to which a man can rise.

Marion Brando plays the stool-
pigeon in his familiar, power-
fully incoherent manner.

_ The production is of the kind
in which nobody can enter or
leave a room without being pur-
sued by a deafening cacophony —
of dramatic brass, and is direct-

dramatic device except sincerity.
: —THOMAS SPENCER.

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- The Book Corner

WEAPONS AGAINST GERMAN RE-ARMAMENT

“THE TRIAL OF KURT MEYER”
($3.15)

This is written by Lt. Col.

B. J. S. MacDonald, chief Cana-

dian prosecutor in Meyer’s orig-

Three recently arrived books
expose the cold-blooded bestiality

and tyranny of the same allies

which our government is cur-
rently attempting ,to re-arm.

“THE SCOURGE OF THE
SWASTIKA” ($3.68)
This is written by Lord Russel of
Liverpool, Deputy Judge Advo-
‘cate General, British Army of the
Rhine, and legal advisor to the
Commander-in-Chief in respect of
all trials of German War Crimin-
als in the British Zone. .
- Great pressure was brought to
bear on Russel by the British
Foreign Office to suppress this
book. He refused and resigned
his position instead. ,
The book, published in August,
has already gone through three
editions. ; :

* Place Your’

inal trial.
beyond doubt that he is absolute--
ly right in saying, “I have not
changed my personal opinion of
the correctness of his original ~
sentence.” (Hanging.) oe

“THE FINAL: SOLUTION” ($6.30)

This is a documentary account .
of the attempt to exterminate the
Jews of Europe 1939-45. . Written
by Gerald Reitlinger.

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Orders Now

PEOPLE'S COOPERATIVE BOOKSTORE

337 West Pender

f

_ MArine 5836 oe
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 26, 1954 — PAGE 4

Vancouver, B.C.

ed by Elia Kazan with. every

MacDonald proves