The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Volume 26 covers a period of transition in Russell's political life between his orthodox and sometimes pugnacious defence of the West in the early post-war, and the dissenting advocacy of nuclear disarmament and détente that started in earnest in the mid-1950s.

While some of the assembled writings echo harsh prior criticism of Soviet expansionism and dictatorship, others register growing qualms about the recklessness of American foreign policy and the baneful effects on civil liberties of anti-communist hysteria inside the United States. Whether continuing to push for western rearmament, or highlighting in a more placatory vein the folly of the Cold War's divisions and rival fanaticisms, Russell's paramount objective was avoiding a war that threatened global catastrophe. Suspended between fear and hope, he expounded his evolving political concerns–and much else besides, including autobiographical reflections and typically common-sense guidance for living well–in a constant flow of newspaper and magazine articles, letters to editors, radio broadcasts and discussions and, of special note, a Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Russell also completed two lecture tours of the United States (the last of many), as well as a landmark such visit to Australia. All three of these journeys, and the textual record they left, are examined in depth using manuscript material and unpublished correspondence from the Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University, which is mined extensively throughout the volume.

Introduction Andrew G. Bone Chronology Part 1: Australian Broadcasts, Lectures, Articles and Miscellanea 1. Guest of Honour [1950] Three Broadcasts for Window on the World 2. The World as I See It [1950] 3. My Philosophy of Life [1950] 4. What Hope for Man [1950] 5. Ferment in Asia [1950] 6. Obstacles to World Government [1950] 7. Blurb for C. K. Bliss, Semantography [1950] 8. We and U.S. Can Lead and Help Asian People [1950] 9. Science Can Help Australia Support More People [1950] 10. Communism, Capitalism, Socialism [1950] a. Bertrand Russell Tells Us What Communism Is b. Private Monopoly Is Bane of Capitalism c. Greater Democracy Is Socialism’s Purpose 11. Living in the Atomic Age [1950] a i. Institutions b ii. Individuals 12. Refuting the Archbishop of Melbourne [1950] a. Reply to Dr. Mannix b. Telegram from Perth 13. Why Western Australians Should Be Happy [1950] 14. Land with a Future for Ambitious Youth [1950] 15. My Impressions of Australia [1950] 16. Happy Australia [1950] 17. Hopes for Australia in a Hundred Years [1951] Part 2: "A Common-Sense Paradise" 18. If We Are to Survive This Dark Time— [1950] 19. What Desires Are Politically Important? [1950] 20. Loquacious Man and His Mind [1950] 21. "To Replace Our Fears with Hope" [1950] 22. "What Can I Do?" [1951] 23. What Does the Single Individual Signify? [1951] 24. The Future of Science [1951] 25. "Living in an Atomic Age": Abstract, Foreword and Related Blurb [1951] a. Provisional Abstract b. Living in an Atomic Age c. Blurb for New Hopes for a Changing World 26. Christianity and Science: Is There a Gulf? [1951] 27. Prof. Gilbert Murray Honoured [1951] 28. Are Human Beings Necessary? [1951] 29. Competition and Co-operation in Politics and Economics [1951] 30. Denies Categorization as a "Humanist" [1951] 31. New Hopes for a Changing World [1951] 32. The Road to Happiness (i) [1951] 33. Lecture to Young Men and Young Women’s Hebrew Association [1951] a. Life without Fear: A View of Poetry b. Questions and Answers 34. Sex Education Is Desirable [1951] 35. My Faith in the Future [1951] 36. A Liberal Decalogue [1951] 37. Prefatory Note to Reprint of "The Elements of Ethics" [1952] 38. The Road to Happiness (ii) [1952] 39. How Fanatics Are Made [1952] 40. Future of the B.B.C. [1952] 41. Leonardo’s Day—and Our Own [1952] Part 3: Autobiography, Humour, Fiction 42. Celebrity [1950] 43. How to Grow Old [1951] 44. How I Write [1951] 45. The Use of Books [1951] 46. Things I Know and Things I Conjecture [1951] a. Things I Know b. Things I Conjecture 47. Bertrand Russell: Biographical Notes [1951] 48. The Corsican Ordeal of Miss X [1951] Part 4: Avoiding War 49. The Fanatics [1950] 50. Message to Japanese Students [1950] 51. On Nationalism [1950] Two Letters on Preventive War 52. Resignation from the Cambridge University Labour Club [1950] 53. Lord Russell and the Atom Bomb [1951] 54. Dictatorship Breeds Corruption [1951] 55. My Plan for Peace [1951] 56. Why Defend the Free World? [1951] 57. Soviet Humour—Does It Exist? [1951] 58. Fifty Years’ Movement towards Equality [1951] 59. Communism and Christian Socialism [1951] 60. European Unity and the Atlantic Alliance [1951] 61. China in the Light of History [1951] 62. The Problem of Germany [1951] 63. Preface to A World Apart [1951] 64. The Narrow Line [1951] 65. Western Values [1952] 66. How Near Is War? [1952] 67. One World—Is It Feasible? [1952] 68. Message to Anti-Franco Protest Meeting [1952] Part 5: Cold War America at Home and Abroad 69. On Mass Hysteria [1951] 70. Every Crisis an Opportunity [1951] 71. Why America Is Losing Her Allies [1951] 72. Lord Russell Sees MacArthur Dismissal as "Act of Courage" [1951] 73. What’s Wrong with Anglo-American Relations [1951] 74. Are These Moral Codes Out of Date? [1951] 75. Commentary on "U.S.A. The Permanent Revolution" [1951] 76. Meet the Press [1951] Three Papers on Political Conformity and Civil Liberties 77. Using Beelzebub to Cast Out Satan [1951] 78. Bertrand Russell and the U.S.A. [1952] 79. Bertrand Russell and the U.S. [1952] 80. Is America in the Grip of Hysteria? [1952] Appendixes Interviews and Reported Speech Multiple-Signatory and Other Non-Authorial Texts Broadcast Transcripts Original Non-English Texts. Missing and Unprinted Papers Annotation Textual Notes Bibliographical Index Index of Paper Titles General Index.