In the 1950-1977 National General Bibliography, 110 chemical popular science books were included. At first, many books were translated books from Soviet. After that, Chinese originals gradually picked up increase. Following the surging of slogan “marching towards science”, the number of books rose dramatically. Due to various political movements in the 1960s, the number began to decline. And then it rebounded in the middle and late period of “Cultural Revolution”. The Hundred Thousand Whys was the largest encyclopedic popular science book published during that period, it was published in three editions, and the chemical part had five volumes. During the “Cultural Revolution”, the number of chemical popular science books was very small, mainly used to interpret Marxism-Leninism and assist political struggles. The content of the chemical popular science books from 1950 to 1977 focuses on the most basic chemistry knowledge, mainly comprehensive knowledge, common substances and phenomena, carbon and organic matter.

chemical popular science books  /  “marching towards science”  /  Hundred Thousand Whys  /  “Cultural Revolution”