The Struggle Against the Bomb

Resisting the Bomb continues the story, begun in the award-winning One World or None, of humanity’s efforts to avert nuclear destruction. Beginning with the catastrophic atmospheric nuclear weapons tests of 1954, it describes the gradual development of a grassroots, worldwide movement for nuclear disarmament. By the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, this campaign had taken on mass dimensions in many nations, with antinuclear protests simultaneously drawing hundreds of thousands of people in dozens of countries.

The movement engaged the efforts of some of the world’s most prominent and revered intellectuals, such as Albert Schweitzer and Bertrand Russell, and had a substantial impact on major political, labor, and religious groups, as well as on public opinion. Even within the relatively closed confines of Communist countries, antinuclear activities emerged and exerted pressure on public officials. As a result, the public policy of numerous countries began to shift away from a reliance upon nuclear war and toward curbing the nuclear arms race?a process that culminated in the partial test ban treaty, the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and other arms control measures of the 1960’s.

This is the first comprehensive account of worldwide nuclear disarmament activism and its consequences during these years. The book is based on extensive research in fifteen countries, of more than a hundred peace groups and government agencies. Many of the documents?such as those drawn from the files of the U.S. State Department, the Atomic Energy Authority of Great Britain, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union?were until recently classified as top secret. Now, together with personal interviews and material drawn from peace movement periodicals, they contribute to a vivid panorama of the global antinuclear campaign, and provide startling revelations about the efforts of government officials to repress, contain, and, finally, accommodate to popular protest.

Reviews of Volume One:

One World or None:

A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement Through 1953

Winner of the Warren Kuehl Prize of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations

?Wittner has done an admirable and meticulous job of tracing the tempestuous history of the international peace movement from the advent of the atomic bomb to the end of the Korean War. . . . Based for the most part on primary sources, Wittner’s work demonstrates truly prodigious research. . . . Beyond providing a comprehensive overview of the topic, the book also provides considerable new information for the debate over the historical significance of the disarmament movement.”

?American Historical Review

?A perceptive account. . . . It adds a great deal to our understanding of the first crucial years of the nuclear age. . . . Wittner has done a prodigious amount of research. . . . The best description that exists of efforts to promote disarmament around the globe.”

?Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist

?A powerfully written and impressively researched study. . . . It would be hard to imagine a better . . . example of multinational history.”

?Canadian Journal of History

?The book is interesting, well written, and massively documented?a major contribution to the history of the origins and early years of the atomic age.”

?Perspectives on Political Science

?Wittner has effectively captured the essence, the magnitude, and the politics of the wide variety of popular movements that emerged during and after World War II in opposition to the new atomic bomb.”

?The Annals

?There is an impressive thoroughness, even-handedness, and global reach in Wittner’s work.”

?International History Review

1993. 472 pages, illus.

Paper, $16.95, cloth, $55.00x

ISBN 0-0847-2528-4 (pa)
ISB