Toward Nuclear Abolition: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1971-Present

by Lawrence S. Wittner

Overview

Toward Nuclear Abolition presents the inspiring, dramatic story of how citizen activists helped curb the arms race and prevent nuclear war. Examining events from 1971 to the present, the author continues the account he began in two earlier volumes, One World or None and Resisting the Bomb. The book shows how pressure from the Nuclear Freeze campaign in the United States, the European Nuclear Disarmament campaign, and comparable movements around the world foiled the nuclear ambitions of hawkish government officials and forced them toward nuclear arms control and disarmament. A leading historian and peace researcher, the author combines extensive scholarly research with a pathbreaking account of how the largest mass movement of modern times saved the world from nuclear annihilation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804748629
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	08/06/2003
Series:	Stanford Nuclear Age Series , #3
Edition description:	1
Pages:	688
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Lawrence S. Wittner is Professor of History at the State University of New York, Albany.

Recipe

Toward Nuclear Abolition presents the inspiring, dramatic story of how citizen activists helped curb the arms race and prevent nuclear war. Examining events from 1971 to the present, the author continues the account he began in two earlier volumes, One World or None and Resisting the Bomb. The book shows how pressure from the Nuclear Freeze campaign in the United States, the European Nuclear Disarmament campaign, and comparable movements around the world foiled the nuclear ambitions of hawkish government officials and forced them toward nuclear arms control and disarmament. A leading historian and peace researcher, the author combines extensive scholarly research with a pathbreaking account of how the largest mass movement of modern times saved the world from nuclear annihilation.

Editorial Reviews

"For clues about how to save the planet from nuclear extinction, there is no better place to turn than to Lawrence S. Wittner's monumental three-volume study of the world disarmament movement from 1945 to the present."

The Progressive

"...a monumental study that deserves to be widely read."

Internationale Politik

"...the most comprehensive and authoritative account available of the world nuclear disarmament movement in the most effective period of its history."

Millennium

"Wittner's impressively researched, clearly written, and balanced assessment of the anti-nuclear-weapon movement belongs on the shelf not only of every serious student of the nuclear arms race but also of everyone who is concerned about the safety of humanity."

American Historical Review

"The saga of the world disarmament movement, whose complex strands Lawrence Wittner has brilliantly and lucidly woven together in Toward Nuclear Abolition, deserves the widest possible readership and retelling."

Executive Director and CEO of Physicians for Social Responsibility and professor at American University - Robert K. Musil

"Once again, for that great purpose, public opinion in all countries must be mobilised. Lawrence S. Wittner's Toward Nuclear Abolition: A History of the World Disarmament Movement helps in that task to perfection. Readers of his previous books will need no incitement to get their hands on this one."

Tribune - Michael Foot

"Wittner has it dead right: It's time to organize and press once again for serious arms control and disarmament."

History News Network

"The final volume of Lawrence Wittner's trilogy is a major contribution to the history of the international peace movement. It covers every major event, organization and activist leader in recent decades and features the same rigorous research in many formerly unused sources, clear writing and even-handed approach that characterized his first two volumes. No single review can do it justice...We are all in debt to him for completing such a difficult project."

The Nonviolent Activist

"...a monumental study that deserves to be widely read."—Internationale Politik

"Once again, for that great purpose, public opinion in all countries must be mobilised. Lawrence S. Wittner's Toward Nuclear Abolition: A History of the World Disarmament Movement helps in that task to perfection. Readers of his previous books will need no incitement to get their hands on this one."—Michael Foot, Tribune

"The saga of the world disarmament movement, whose complex strands Lawrence Wittner has brilliantly and lucidly woven together in Toward Nuclear Abolition, deserves the widest possible readership and retelling."—Robert K. Musil, Executive Director and CEO of Physicians for Social Responsibility and professor at American University

"For clues about how to save the planet from nuclear extinction, there is no better place to turn than to Lawrence S. Wittner's monumental three-volume study of the world disarmament movement from 1945 to the present."—The Progressive

"The final volume of Lawrence Wittner's trilogy is a major contribution to the history of the international peace movement. It covers every major event, organization and activist leader in recent decades and features the same rigorous research in many formerly unused sources, clear writing and even-handed approach that characterized his first two volumes. No single review can do it justice...We are all in debt to him for completing such a difficult project."—The Nonviolent Activist
"Wittner has it dead right: It's time to organize and press once again for serious arms control and disarmament."—History News Network
"Wittner's impressively researched, clearly written, and balanced assessment of the anti-nuclear-weapon movement belongs on the shelf not only of every serious student of the nuclear arms race but also of everyone who is concerned about the safety of humanity."—American Historical Review
"...the most comprehensive and authoritative account available of the world nuclear disarmament movement in the most effective period of its history."—Millennium

From the Publisher

With this new volume, Wittner concludes his substantial, meticulously researched, and sympathetic history of the disarmament movement. His previous volume described a movement that was barely the sum of its national parts, constantly dogged by the involvement of communists who maintained that only Western nations had policies deserving of challenge. Over the past three decades, this problem has disappeared. Although national differences remain, Wittner points to major achievements in mobilizing large demonstrations and articulating compelling alternatives to nuclear armament. But Wittner also claims that the movement had an important impact on policy, and here he is less convincing. He cites, for example, Ronald Reagan's decision to "swim with the anti-nuclear tide" during his second term as a victory for the movement. In reality, Reagan had been antinuclear since the 1940s. More than ten years after the end of the Cold War, the goal of nuclear abolition remains distant. The real contribution of the antinuclear movement has been its ability to give voice to public anxieties when governments take too many risks with the ultimate weapon.

Foreign Affairs