Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement (Stanford Nuclear Age Series) [Hardcover]

Lawrence Wittner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0804756317 | ISBN-13: 978-0804756310 | Publication Date: May 12, 2009

Confronting the Bomb tells the dramatic, inspiring story of how citizen activism helped curb the nuclear arms race and prevent nuclear war. This abbreviated version of Lawrence Wittner's award-winning trilogy, The Struggle Against the Bomb, shows how a worldwide, grassroots campaign—the largest social movement of modern times—challenged the nuclear priorities of the great powers and, ultimately, thwarted their nuclear ambitions. Based on massive research in the files of peace and disarmament organizations and in formerly top secret government records, extensive interviews with antinuclear activists and government officials, and memoirs and other published materials, Confronting the Bomb opens a unique window on one of the most important issues of the modern era: survival in the nuclear age. It covers the entire period of significant opposition to the bomb, from the final stages of the Second World War up to the present. Along the way, it provides fascinating glimpses of the interaction of key nuclear disarmament activists and policymakers, including Albert Einstein, Harry Truman, Albert Schweitzer, Norman Cousins, Nikita Khrushchev, Bertrand Russell, Andrei Sakharov, Linus Pauling, Dwight Eisenhower, Harold Macmillan, John F. Kennedy, Randy Forsberg, Mikhail Gorbachev, Helen Caldicott, E.P. Thompson, and Ronald Reagan. Overall, however, it is a story of popular mobilization and its effectiveness.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lawrence Wittner has done the world a favor by condensing his award-winning comprehensive three-volume history, The Struggle Against the Bomb, into this compact text."—Eddy MacGregor, Fellowship

"Anyone serious about world federalism and the peace movement cannot afford to miss this book . . . It would be ideal for adoption as a course book in any college courses on the peace issue."—Jame T. Ranney, Minerva: World Federalist Institute.

"In his latest book, Wittner gives us something no one has ever shown us. He chronicles how global civil society grew its own capacity to stop the rulers—in democracies and dictatorships alike—from firing the omnicidal weaponry the rulers developed. If you've ever signed a petition, voted against nukes in a referendum, been to an anti-nuclear demonstration, written a letter opposing any piece of the nuclear arsenal, gone to visit a politician to lobby against any atomic bomb component, or been arrested for your nonviolent refusal to let them do this bad business in your name, this book is for you."—The Peaceworker

"This abbreviated version of the author's award-winning trilogy, The Struggle Against the Bomb, shows how a worldwide grassroots campaign challenged the nuclear priorities of great powers. Based on the files of peace and disarmament organizations, formerly top secret government records, interviews with antinuclear activists and government officials, and memoirs and other published materials, the book provides fascinating glimpses of interactions among key activists and policymakers including Albert Einstein, Harry Truman, and Linus Pauling."—Book News

"Wittner's outstanding book employs massive research . . . to show how concerned citizens . . . have altered the course of history . . . Monumental." —Journal of American History

About the Author

Lawrence S. Wittner is Professor of History at the State University of New York, Albany, and former President of the Peace History Society. He is the author of the trilogy, published by Stanford University Press, The Struggle Against the Bomb: One World or None (1993), Resisting the Bomb (1997), and Toward Nuclear Abolition (2003).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804756317
• ISBN-13: 978-0804756310
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,877,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST book on the peace issue, September 14, 2009

By 

James T. Ranney (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement (Stanford Nuclear Age Series) (Paperback)

Since 1983, I have read several thousand books on "the peace issue." I was also permitted to teach a seminar on "Law and World Peace." I have founded or co-founded several peace groups (Montana Lawyers for Peace; Jeannette Rankin Peace Center; and Global Constitution Forums). Wittner's new synopsis of his earlier 3-volume work is the BEST of the books I have read. You would not think that a mere "history," however good (and it is fabulous), could possibly convey so much substantive information re various doctrines and strategies, but it does. Most of all, what this book does is provide a "roadmap for social change," it gives both academics and activists and just ordinary citizens multiple clues as to "what to do." So, for those seeking this kind of strategic insight, this is the book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Citizen's Peace Action, August 27, 2009

By 

Scott H. Bennett - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement (Stanford Nuclear Age Series) (Paperback)

In Confronting the Bomb, historian Lawrence S. Wittner provides an abridgement of his massive, award-winning Struggle against the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement trilogy (1993-2003). Based on the records of disarmament organizations, previously secret government documents, interviews with antinuclear activists and government officials, peace movement periodicals, and memoirs, Struggle examines both top down government policies and bottom up citizen activism. It chronicles scores of antinuclear organizations and individuals over six decades of global antinuclear activism. This well-written, persuasively-argued book is a pleasure to read--and it will appeal to general readers and experts alike.

Wittner opens with a central question: "How should we account for the fact that, since 1945, the world had avoided nuclear war?" Furthermore, why have nuclear nations adopted nuclear arms control and disarmament measures? He rejects the conventional interpretation that holds that nuclear weapons have "deterred" nations from waging war. Instead, he argues that a mass nuclear disarmament movement has mobilized millions of people worldwide and has pressured governments to adopt nuclear disarmament agreements. In short, Wittner contends that the antinuclear movement--not "peace through strength"--has saved the world from nuclear Armageddon.

In addition, Wittner challenges U.S. Cold War "triumphalism"--the notion that American
political will and military might, in particular Reagan's enormous arms buildup and military spending, precipitated the Soviet collapse and enabled the United States to win the Cold War. Instead, he credits Gorbachev, along with the antinuclear movement that influenced him, for taking the steps that ended the Cold War. Moreover, he contends that Reagan's military buildup actually encouraged--not discouraged--Soviet militarism. That said, he also notes Reagan's contributions to the 1987 INF Treaty banning intermediate-range nuclear weapons.

Wittner argues that the nuclear disarmament movement--"the largest grassroots struggle in the modern world"--was divided into competing non-aligned and communist-led wings. Aligned with Soviet foreign policy, the communist-led wing, organized around the World Peace Council, had little credibility outside the communist bloc. Conversely, the nonaligned wing, which included pacifists, atomic scientists, world federalists, ordinary citizens, and local, national, and transnational organizations, had a greater impact.

According to Wittner, the movement followed recurring cycles of activism and retreat. When the nuclear menace has been most dangerous, the movement has grown into a more powerful force, curbing the nuclear arms race and deterring nuclear war. When the nuclear threat has subsided, the movement has declined and national security officials have renewed their nuclear plans. Most government officials, he contends, adopted nuclear arms control and disarmament reluctantly--and only in response to popular pressure and resistance. Thus, in Wittner's account, the global antinuclear movement has been the primary agent in nuclear disarmament.

Wittner explains the movement's various victories, from 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty (the world's first nuclear arms treaty) to the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (the last major nuclear arms treaty). By the mid-1990s, however, the movement confronted new challenges. George W. Bush abandoned nuclear restraints, Britain and France considered new nuclear weapons, India and Pakistan became nuclear powers, Iran and pre-2003 Iraq sought to develop nuclear weapons, and North Korea tested long-range ballistic missiles.

In a thoughtful conclusion, Wittner turns to the political implications of his scholarly work. Like many of the antinuclear activists that he has studied, he advocates nuclear abolition and the transformation of the international system. He attributes the continued existence of nuclear weapons to "the pathology of the nation-state system" that relies on the "national security" paradigm and seeks peace through military strength. This traditional approach, Wittner warns, will eventually lead to nuclear war and human destruction. To avoid nuclear Armageddon, Wittner calls for short term and long term goals. In the short term, we must pursue nuclear arms control and disarmament--and the abolition of nuclear weapons. In the long term, we must transform both the nation-state system and international security system by transferring some power from the national to the international level. These goals could be achieved, he asserts, through citizens' movements on the grassroots level and a strengthened United Nations on the global level.

Despite the book's optimistic tone, Wittner closes on an unsettling note. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has reset its doomsday clock at 5 minutes to midnight--2 minutes closer to humanity's catastrophic destruction than at the clock's inception in 1947. This ticking clock imbues Wittner's proscriptions with added urgency, instills the world nuclear disarmament movement with continued relevance, and makes this book essential reading.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Short History" and a Captivating Story, July 29, 2009

By 

Bruce Roth (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement (Stanford Nuclear Age Series) (Paperback)

In Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, Lawrence Wittner tells the captivating story of the transnational nuclear disarmament movement. An abbreviated version of his award winning trilogy, The Struggle Against the Bomb, this book is based on substantial research into previously top secret government documents, the files of disarmament and peace organizations, and many interviews with government officials and nuclear disarmament group leaders. Through the viewpoints of key international actors, Confronting the Bomb provides rare insights into the power of transnational movements to shift government policy, and the successes and failures of the international disarmament movement.

Wittner begins this historical journey with the creation and first use of nuclear technology as a weapon, thereby setting the stage to chronicle both government and public attitudes about the atomic bomb, and to demonstrate how the transnational disarmament movement developed as a direct response to those attitudes. From the bomb's inception, there was a burgeoning activist movement. In the first section, a vivid account details the early misgivings of the scientific community. Members of the Manhattan Project expressly warned the U.S. government of the dangers of nuclear technology and its use as a weapon. As the forefathers of the disarmament movement, nuclear scientists made early attempts to establish international controls on nuclear weapons and to prevent proliferation. Yet such cautions and attempts were strongly suppressed by government officials who only saw the power behind the bomb. One of the strengths of this book is that Wittner shows several sides of the story--the scientific community, the government, and the public--to provide an accurate account of what transpired, which precipitated the development of a strong activist movement.

From this starting point, Wittner extends his analysis of the development of citizen activism within the context of international sentiments following WWII. Rather than focus solely on the birth of the disarmament movement as an isolated event, Wittner demonstrates how the political attitudes and social movements of the time, including peace activists and supporters of world government, intertwined to take up the mantle of nuclear disarmament to create a transnational movement. A key point to take note of is how quickly the disarmament movement drew public support, especially considering early public support of nuclear weapons, particularly in the U.S. Implicit in this book is that part of the success of the disarmament movement in changing public policy is the ability to mobilize both quickly and to a large degree. Wittner observes that the true strength of the movement involved millions of people, but at times, it dwindled to only several thousand activists.

The remainder of the book chronicles the ebb and flow of the disarmament movement and the response of various governments, particularly in the U.S., Europe, and the Soviet Union. However, there are two points worth noting here. First, while discussing the disarmament movements that were popping up all over the world, Wittner also explores the disarmament movement within the Cold War context and illustrates how even peace movements were riddled with propaganda. Wittner does an excellent job of detailing how both the U.S. and Soviet Union utilized peace and disarmament movements as a tool to fight Communism and Western Imperialism, respectively. What is noteworthy about this aspect of the movement is how it affected both the movement itself and government policy. For the activists, such government manipulation may have actually given impetus to the movement. As noted by Wittner, every time a rally was shut down or activists were suppressed or deported, they became even more motivated. On the government policy side, while officially the nuclear posture became more entrenched, Wittner argues that the opposite was true; as the movement spread, governments were unable to use nuclear weapons because of the public outcry, so in essence, policy changed.

This point segues nicely to the second point, which is Wittner's account of the success of the disarmament movement and the true thesis of this book--how ordinary citizen activists were able to change the course of history. Throughout the historical timeline, Wittner makes a point of showcasing the divide between government and public opinion, but he argues that activism tempered government policy. Every positive step on the road to disarmament--the establishment of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and other international controls, the fact that nuclear weapons have never been used since the first atomic bomb, and disarmament treaties between the U.S. and Soviet Union--can be attributed to the international criticism of nuclear weapons. Wittner provides strong evidence for his argument through interviews with government officials who admit that public sentiment has influenced government policy. For example, during President Reagan's tenure, the administration planned for a strong nuclear posture, but transnational movements became so strong and so publicized that many U.S. allies refused to have nuclear weapons in their states. Eventually the Reagan administration was forced to reverse its course.

Confronting the Bomb makes a strong case for citizen activism and provides robust evidence as to the power of transnational movements in establishing international norms. This book provides an excellent and detailed account of both the history of the bomb and its place in government policy, and the activist movements that may have prevented nuclear weapons from destroying the world.

Bruce A. Roth, Executive Director
Daisy Alliance
Author of "No Time To Kill"