A NIKOLAYEV, R AND D IN SOCIAL REPRODUCTION, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1975, pp 356. OF ALL human endeavour the arts and literature demand the maximum of creative involvement from the individual, with scientific research falling next in line. But this relatively higher level of creative involvement of the individual does not undermine the social and collective character of these disciplines. The bourgeois ideologists who insist that the creative urge in man is purely individualistic in character, deny the social ato4 collective foundation of the arts, literature and sriehcc. They would like to have us believe that the capitalist socio-economic framework is best suited for the realisation of creative talent in society. The present book is a well documented effort to disprove this hypothesis as far. as scientific and industrial research is concerned. The author has surveyed and analysed the evidence relating R and D in the USA in order to dispute the claim that the creative urge in man finds its best expression in the so called ^free world', Research aM Development h essentially an investment for the future, a link in the process cff extended social reproduction. The inherent inability of the capitalist frame to recognise this basic social reality springs directly from the mode and motivation for organising production under capitalism, namely the generation of surplus vatue or profits. The individual capitalist can perceive and practise R and D only in relation to this competitive position in (he market and since the concept of social accounting is altogether alien category to capitalist economics, expenditure on R and D gets accounted for only as consumption. The attitude of the individual capitalist as well as of the capitalist State as a whole towards scientific research is as unstable and unpredictable as the market economy itself. Thus scientific and industrial research which is to play a vital role in social reproduction is in a state of uneasy alliance with the process and organisationr of material production in a capitalist economy. The author narrates several examples of confrontation? between eminent researchers, inventors and other scientific personnel on the am hand, and monopoly capital tacitly supported by the State on the other. Motivation of Scientific Research Large monopoly companies in the USA encourage R ap?d D work to help solve production problems and sustain the compcritivettess^of (heir products m the market. Basic research leading to new diacwerie^ @r