Editor William Rose solicited leading authorities of the time, including Roger Fry, C. G. Seligman, Maurice Dobb, F. J. C. Hearnshaw, G. D. H. Cole, J. C. Flügel, R. R. Marett, and J. W. N. Sullivan among others, to contribute informative essays written for the common reader.
[1] The publishers explained their reasons for creating such a volume in the introduction to the book: “The planning of the present book was therefore based on the assumption that the only way to provide a conspectus of the actual achievements of scholarship and thought would be in a sufficient number of presentations by leading authorities who are themselves original investigators in the essential fields of study.
Each contributor outlines the past history of his subject before leading up to an exposition of the present state of knowledge and the relation of his field of work to the life and thought of to-day.
”[2] The twenty-four articles carried the reader through the subjects of science, philosophy, religion, sex, mathematics, astronomy, biology, anthropology, cosmogony, psychology, psycho-analysis, archaeology, economics, politics, finance, industry, internationalism, history, ethnology, geography, literary criticism, music, architecture, painting and sculpture.
The publisher postponed a further reprint as there were plans to update the articles based on changing current events.