Prescription for Survival: A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness (BK Currents (Hardcover)) [Hardcover]

Bernard Lown M.D. (Author), Howard Zinn Ph.D. (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: BK Currents (Hardcover) | Publication Date: July 1, 2008

In Prescription for Survival, physician Bernard Lown tells the extraordinary story of how a group of Soviet and American doctors came together to stop nuclear proliferation and ended up winning the Nobel Peace Prize and influencing the course of history. In 1981, Lown and a Soviet colleague, Evgeni Chazov, launched a USA-USSR medical antinuclear movement: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Over the next four years Lown and Chazov recruited more than 150,000 doctors worldwide, met with numerous world leaders, and, after a surprising amount of adventure, intrigue and conflict, in 1985 accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of IPPNW. More than a memoir, this book sheds new light on what really drove and still drives the nuclear arms race, the critical importance of citizen involvement in social change efforts, and what Lown terms the ongoing epidemic of militarism, which a glance to recent headlines shows is still very much with us.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Bernard Lown is Professor of Cardiology (Emeritus) at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is the developer of the original defibrillator. He is the cofounder of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, an organisation which won the Nobel Prize in 1985, as well as SATELLIFE and PorCor. He is the author of The Lost Art of Healing: Practicing Compassion in Medicine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 436 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576754820
• ISBN-13: 978-1576754825
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #469,329 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 An Extraordinary Book by an Extraordinary Human Being, September 6, 2008

By 

John C. Bogle (ValleyForge, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prescription for Survival: A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness (BK Currents (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

One doesn't expect an eminent cardiologist to speak out on nuclear war, to organize a global network of physicians to confront the issue, and to make its enormous risks clear to the world; and ultimately to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. This wonderful book by that very cardiologist, Dr. Bernard Lown, recounts this compelling saga. It is a powerful book by any standard, made even more so by the grace, fluidity, and richness of his prose, surely the equal of our nation's finest writers (further enriched by apt quotations from the great poets and playwrights of the ages). Every caring, concerned citizen of the globe will want this book at the top of his or her reading list. (Full disclosure: I was a patient of Dr. Lown's for some 20 years; I give him credit for the fact that I'm here today to praise not only his idealism but his skill as a physician.)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, September 12, 2008

By 

Barbara Roberts "MD, FACC" (Providence, RI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prescription for Survival: A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness (BK Currents (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

First a disclaimer. More than thirty years ago, Dr. Lown was one of my teachers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital where I was a young, inexperienced fellow in cardiology. And what a privilege it was to watch this master clinician, consummate healer and deeply moral mentor at work.

A few years later, with Russian cardiologist Eugene Chazov, Dr. Lown founded the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which, within a few short years was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. "Prescription for Survival" is Dr. Lown's gripping memoir of that time, an amazing chronicle of how a few committed doctors set out to confront the specter of nuclear holocaust, organized tens of thousands of supporters and helped save civilization from annihilation.

This is a "must read" book. It's message of hope, of the centrality of mass action, of the necessity to speak truth to power, of persistence in the face of daunting challenges, is particularly pertinent at this juncture in the history of our planet. At a time when once again events seem to be spinning out of control, when not only rampant wars, but catastrophic climate change, ecologic degradation and unbridled militarism all menace our survival as a species, the lessons of this book need to be promulgated, adopted and utilized if we are to leave a habitable planet to our children and grandchildren.

Buy "Prescription for Survival," tell your friends to buy it, and take its lessons to heart. As Dr. Lown writes at the close of this absorbing, hard-to-put-down book: "This memoir is ultimately a call to action. Only those who see the invisible can do the impossible. This book makes visible a wide terrain wherein action for another world fit for human beings becomes both challenging and possible."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A surprising book, August 23, 2008

By 

brookside "hannah" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prescription for Survival: A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness (BK Currents (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

I'm someone who often purchases important books, skims them quickly and then shelves them, with every intention of getting back to the task of educating myself about the subject. Somehow, I never manage to open the book again, so it sits there among other such volumes, while I turn to literary efforts that may be more trivial, but promise to be more fun. So I was surprised when I started flipping pages to find that the author had turned this critical issue into a detective story. Instead of being bored by didactic lessons that I agreed with, I found myself reading until 2AM to follow the story of these brave doctors who wouldn't take no for an answer. I thought I knew a lot about the subject, but this story surprised and fascinated me, made me laugh and made me angry too.