This book recounts the many challenges and successes achieved by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) from World War II to 1970. Included are: (1) the development of the National Science Foundation; (2) Cold War concerns about the loyalty and freedom of scientists; (3) efforts to develop an effective science curriculum for all Americans; (4) issues regarding air conservation; (5) use of arid lands; and (6) the effects of herbicides in Vietnam and others. Important issues within the AAAS during that same period are examined such as determining how the organization should be structured and governed, redefining the role of the AAAS national meeting, and the evolution of "Science" magazine into the world's premier scientific journal. The detailed "minute books" which contain the official copies of the agenda and minutes of meetings of the council, the board of directors, and the association's major committees, the related memoranda and correspondence, plus the printed accounts of association activities published in "Science" or elsewhere, provide the documentation for the story. Appended are a chronological list of events from 1840 through 1970 and a listing of the people who have served as presidents of the AAAS since its founding in 1848, together with their disciplines and the meetings at which they officiated. (KR)