Abstract: In response to the Nazi anti-Jewish policies, Polanyi resigned from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and moved to the University of Manchester in 1933. Even as he brought his work in reaction kinetics to a climax with the publication of Atomic Reactions in 1935, he was deeply immersed in economic studies and philosophical reflection on the nature of a freedom in science and in society, which led in turn to the production of two movies on the economic cycle. Polanyi worked with his colleagues on reaction rates, hydrogen catalysis, proton transfer reactions, ionogenic reactions, pyrolysis, and bond energies.

Keywords: resignation, Atomic Reactions, economics, philosophy of freedom, hydrogen catalysis, proton transfer reactions, ionogenic reactions, pyrolysis, bond energies,