Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement

Stanford Nuclear Age Series

by Lawrence S. Wittner

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 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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 12, 2009

About the author

Raised in Brooklyn, NY, Lawrence Wittner attended Columbia College and, in 1967, received his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University. Thereafter, he taught at Hampton Institute, at Vassar College, at Japanese universities (under the Fulbright program), and (starting in 1974) at SUNY/Albany, where he rose to the rank of Professor History before his retirement in 2010. A prolific, award-winning writer, he is the author of nine books and has edited or co-edited another four. He has also written hundreds of articles and book reviews for scholarly journals, as well as for popular publications such as the Huffington Post. His latest published books are his memoirs (Working for Peace and Justice) and a satirical novel about corporatization and rebellion at an American public university (What’s Going On at UAardvark?). A long-time activist in social movements, he is currently a national board member of Peace Action (the largest peace organization in the United States) and the executive secretary of the Albany County Central Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are r3esearching the anti-nuclear weapons movements from 1945 to the early 21st century, you probably won't find a better source. For casual reading, though, it is dry. Decade by decade, nation by nation, we see how protests against the bomb waxed and waned. Wittner's conclusions, though, are hard to dismiss. Grassroots movements by hundreds of thousands of people DID make a difference. Even Ronald Reagan, who entered the White House talking quite casually about using the bomb, realized that kind of talk would not get him reelected and he not only toned down his rhetoric but actually cooperated to some extent with the Soviet Union to reduce both testing and the number of nukes each country had. The movement is currently (late 2018) at a low point, but it appears that we need to rev it up again.

[Cecily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave a great description of the antinuclear movement during the Cold War and how the movement would gather followers of a vast amount of groups around the globe. Events like the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Korean and Vietnam Wars were discussed as well as Presidency's of Kennedy, Eisenhower, Regan and Clinton in regards to the antinuclear weapons movement as well as the arms race in great detail that many people would not know otherwise.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed account if anti-nuke movements. This book can be a bit all over the place at times, but there is no mistaking this books importance in detailing and investigating the actions of peace movements around the world.