Marx saw the key to human nature in wealth, Freud in sex, and Bertrand Russell in power. Power, he argued, was man’s ultimate goal and, in its many guises, the essential element in the development of any society. In the late 1930s, with Europe torn apart by extremist ideologies and the world on the brink of war, Russell set out to found a “new science” to make sense of the traumatic events of the time and to explain those that would follow. The result was Power (1938), a remarkable book that Russell considered one of the most important of his long career. Confronting the totalitarian drive for domination, he showed how political enlightenment and human understanding could lead to peace. His book was a passionate plea for the independence of reason and a celebration of the instinctive joy of human life.