The Bertrand Russell Society was founded in 1974 with the aim of fostering a better understanding of the life, work, and writings of Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) as well as his contributions to today’s world.

The Society has a regular annual meeting, with talks on both Russell's scholarly and his more popular writings and others still on Russell's life. In addition to talks on Russell, the Society has a business meeting, a banquet, and good fellowship. The annual meeting is usually in June, most often in a university setting. The meetings have taken place at wide variety of locations.

The Society publishes the Bertrand Russell Society Bulletin, which is free to all members. Interested persons are invited to submit papers to the editor, Gregory Landini (gregory-landini at uiowa dot edu) at the University of Iowa. Members also receive the scholarly journal Russell with their membership. The Russell Journal is produced by the Russell Project at McMaster University in Canada, where the Russell Archives are kept.

The BRS Library has a collection of Russell-related books and papers that members can borrow and a large selection of television and radio interviews of Russell online in the members area of the Library. Members may email BRS Secretary John Ongley (ongley at gmail.com) for access.

The BRS awards an annual student paper prize for the best new paper about Russell by an under­graduate or graduate student. Prize-winners present their papers at our annual meeting, receive $200, free registration, lodging and banquet at the meeting, and a 1-year membership in the BRS.

The BRS also awards an annual BRS book award for the best new book on Russell, an annual BRS award to an individual or an organization whose work best furthers the interests and commitments of Bertrand Russell, and a service award for service to the Russell Society.

Recent book award winners include Russell Wahl (ed.), in 2019, for The Bloomsbury Companion to Bertrand Russell and Tim Madigan and Peter Stone (eds.) for Bertrand Russell: Public Intellectual. Recent recipients of the BRS Award have been the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation in 2022, Dr. Anthony Fauci in 2021, and Noam Chomsky in 2020.

The BRS sponsors sessions of talks on Russell and early analytic philosophy more generally at the annual Eastern and Central Division meetings of the American Philosophical Association.

Finally, the BRS helps support Russell scholarship, for example, with its annual meeting (a 3-day fest of talks on Russell and related topics), its Student Essay Prize, its sessions of Russell talks at the American Philosophical Association meetings, and with websites and Facebook pages, which aim to provide information on Russell and to further our shared interests and values.