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The life & work of Soviet historian of science Boris Hessen are reviewed. Known for a paper, "The Social and Economic Roots of Newton's 'Principia'," presented in London, England, in 1931, Hessen disappeared in 1938 in relative disrepute. His work has recently been revived in the USSR, where he is honored as having provided the first dialectical-materialist interpretation of the history of a fundamental scientific theory. The impact of Hessen's paper in GB is explored, from J. D. Bernal through James Conant to Thomas Kuhn, & in the perspective known as externalism. The impact of political events in the USSR on Hessen's approach to science is described. A. Waters

Based on an assumption that the effect of society on nature is increasingly problematic, & that a "politics of nature" will soon be needed, an assessment of traditional views of the relationships among science, nature, & politics is offered. The traditional relation between science & politics is the Baconian "experimental philosophy," in which science is divorced from politics; the current trends point in the opposite direction. The traditional relation between science & nature is based on ideas of mechanics, & posits the scientist as an uninterested observer of mechanical functioning of natural phenomena; the contemporary view concedes the intervention of the scientists into natural systems (if only through measurement) & -- in ecology -- may even champion intervention to achieve "natural" balance. Politics & nature have traditionally been related through man's fantasies of control of nature; now that those fantasies have been realized, the problem of controlling man's effects on nature must be addressed. Ways of "going natural," going luddite, & going technocrat are criticized as inadequate responses to the need for a politics of nature. Finally, predictions are made concerning the future interrelationship among science, politics, & nature; it is suggested that man will increasingly find it necessary to maintain, reproduce, & construct nature & natural environment, lest they vanish. The effect of science & society on nature can no longer be passively observed. J. Weber.