This weekend's reading list:

Jon Spencer (reviewer) — May 1984

Albert, M., & Delinger, D. (eds.) (1983). Beyond Survival: New Directions for the Disarmament Movement. Boston: South End Press. Articles by Noam Chomsky, Alexander Cockburn and others on present US defence policy and its political, economic and moral ramifications. A brilliant and damning indictment of the militarisation of American society
Aldridge, R.E. (1979). The Counterforce Syndrome: A Guide to US Nuclear Weapons and Strategic Doctrine (2nd ed.). Washington DC: Institute for Policy Studies. A scathing critique, by a former Lockheed engineer and weapons designer, of current dangerous trends in American arms acquisition and strategic thinking.
Aldridge, R.E. (1983). First Strike: The Pentagon’s Strategy for Nuclear War. Boston: South End Press.
Alternative Defence Commission (1983). Defence Without the Bomb: The Report of the Alternative Defence Commission. London: Taylor & Francis. A vitally important, authoritative study, partlv sponsored by the Stockholm Intemational Peace Research Institute. that conclusivelv deI11onstrates the feasibility of all effective, nonnuclear defence posture for western Europe.
Arbatov, G. (1981). The Soviet Viewpoint. New York: Dodd Mead. A series or interviews with the chief Soviet expert Oil North America, ranging over arms control. US-Soviet relations, etc. A subtle melange or truths, halftruths and distortions.
Arkin, A. (1976). The Lemming Condition. New York: Harper & Row. A good children’s book dealing with the problem of widely-held destructive social views.
Arkin, W.M., et al. (1983). Nuclear Weapons Databook, Vol 1: US Nuclear Forces and Capabilities. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger. The first of a series oif ten volumes. An e.xtraordinary enterprise. When completed, these books will stand as the definitive encIclopaedic treatment of nuclear armaments.
Belts, R.K. (Ed.) (19R3). Cruise Missiles: Tech nology, Strategy, PoIitics. Washington: The Brookings Institution. Everything you’ve always wanted to know and much, much more.
Briggs, R. (1992). When the Wind Blows. Penguin Books. Black humour of the highest order. A brillian cartoonist’s version of the horrible and, pathetic fate of a hapless married couple in Thatcher’s Britain after the holocaust.
Carver, F.M.L. (1982). A policy for peace. London: Faber & Faber.
Chomsky, N., et al. (1981). Superpowers in collision: The New Cold War. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Chomsky’s rhetorical demmciations of the U.S. are balanced by Jonathon Steele’s cool analysis of Soviet policy and John Gitling’s expert essl’ly on China. All three wrilers agree that the U. S. has been il1ainly responsible, thanks to ils interventionist zeal and obsession wilh military and economic tensions and destabilizalion.
Cockburn, A. (1983). The Threat: Inside the Soviet Military Machine. New York: Random House. A factual, well-documented study by a Brilish joumalist specializing in defence issues that Ihoroughly demolishes Ihe myth of overwhelming Soviet mililary superiority foslered by the Pentagon.
Cox, A.M. (1982). Russian Roulette: The superpower game (with a Soviet commentary by Georgy Arbatov) New York: Times Books.
Dallek, R. (1982). The American Style of Foreign Policy: Cultural Politics and Foreign Affairs. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Establishes a conneclion bel ween the oflen unstable and irrational course of us foreign policy since World War II and domeslic polilical and cultural faclors, e.g. anti-Communist paranoia.
Draper, T. (1983), Present History: On nuclear war, detente and other controversies. New York: Random House. Ralional, incisive and causlic collection of essays by Ihe. prominenl journalist and polilical commentator. Uflerly demolishes Reagan’s and Weinberger’s appalling nolion of “prevailing” in a “protracted” nuclear war.
Epstein, W., Webster, L., (Eds) (1983). We Can Avert Nuclear War. Cambridge, Mass.: Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain.
Ford, D., et aI., and the Union of Concerned Scientists (1983). Beyond the Freeze: The road to nuclear sanity. Boston: Beacon Press.
Freedman, L. (1981). The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy. London: St. Martin’s Press. A long, delailed exposition of the ways in which politicians, defence planners and mililary men have Ihoughl about nuclear weapo,j from the beginning of Ihe atomic age to Ihe presenl. This is a difficult book wrillen for an academic audience, ,but deserves a wider readership.
Freeman, Harold. (1983). This is the Way the World Will End, This is the Way You Will End, Unless… Hurtig Publishers.
Jiulley, John G. (1984). The Day We Bombed Utah. Scarborough: New American Library of Canada Ltd.
Garrison, J. ( 1980). From Hiroshima to Harrisburg. London: SCM Press.
Garrison, M. (1983). The Darkness of God: Theology after Hiroshima. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.
Giangrande, C. (1983). The Nuclear North: The people, the regions and the arms race. Toronto: Anansi. A journalist’s passion ale account of Canada’s involvemenl in the development and manufacluring of nuclear weapons and of how ordinary Canadians — from Litton employees to native Canadians in northern Alberta — feel about it.
Gray, E.S. (1982). The MX, ICBM and National Security. Praegar Publishers.
Hansson, E., & Liden, K. (1983). Moscow women: 13 interviews. New York: Pantheon. Moving — and depressing — accounts of the everyday lives of women in the U.S.S.R.
Hertsgaard, M. (1983). Nuclear,. Inc.: The men and money behind nuclear energy. New York: Pantheon Books. .
Hilgartner, S., et al. (1983). Nukespeak: The selling of nuclear technology in America. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. A definitive guide to the Orwellian jargon that dominates the field of nuclear power and strategic thinking. Indispensable for anyone wishing to join the ebate.
Holloway, D. (1983). The Soviet Union and the Arms Race. New Haven: Yale University Press. An extremely valuable scholarly study that views Soviet nuclear policy dynamically and dialectically in terms of responses to Western initiatives and perceived threats.
Kaldor, M. (1981). The Baroque Arsenal. London: Andre Deutsch. An original study although rather limited in focus of the economically, socially and militarily counter-productive consequences, for both the United States and the Soviet Union, that .flow from an increasingly expensive, technologically sophisticated arms race.
Kaldor, M., & Smith, D. (Eds.) (1982). Disarming Europe. London: Merlin Press. A collection of substantive papers dealing with various aspects of the military balance in Europe, both nuclear and conventional, proposals for alternative security arrangements, etc.
Kaplan, F. (1983). The Wizards of Armageddon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. An excellent critical study of the bizarre hidden world of American nuclear strategists and war planners.
Kennan, G. (1982). The Nuclear Delusion. New York: Pantheon. The most important book yet published on the nature of the Russian threat and the misguided foreign policy of the United States with respect to the Soviet Union.
Kennedy, E., and Hatfield, M. (1982). Freeze: How You Can Prevent Nuclear War. Bantam Books.
Kennedy, G. (1983). Defense Economics. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Lens, S. (1983). The Maginot Line Syndrome: America’s hopeless foreign policy. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger.
Leontief, W., & Duchin, F. (1983). Military Spending: Facts and figures, worldwide implications and future outlook. New York: Oxford University Press. ‘
Lifton, R.J. (1968). Death in life: Survivors of Hiroshima. New York: Basic Books. A moving dissection of the psychological horrors visited upon the physical survivors of Hiroshima.
Lifton, R.J., & Falk, R. (1982). Indefensible Weapons: The political and psychological case against nuclearism. Toronto: CBC. A powerful and profound book that treats “nuclearism,” i.e., our reliance on and acceptance of nuclear weapons, as a disease, both of the mind and the body politic, that “undermines national security, destroys political legitimacy and psychologically impairs a future. “
Lovins, A.B. (1980). Energy/war: Breaking the Nuclear Link. New York: Harper & Row. A detailed examination of the relationship between the commercial exploitation of nuclear energy and the nuclear arms race.
Lovins, A.B., et al. (1983). The First Nuclear World War: A new vision of national security to stop the spread of the bomb. New York: William Morrow. Both a factbook about the nuclearization of the Third World and a plea for common sense. Raises the threat of regional nuclear war.
Mandelbaum, M. (1979). The Nuclear Question: The United States and Nuclear Weapons 1xxx-xxxx.
A scholarly hut readable history and analysis of nuclear strategy and arms control. The author is a nuclear Candide, arguing that deterrence works, that efforts at arms control have been reasonably successful.
MIT Faculty (Comp. & Eds.) (I983). The Nuclear Almanac. Boston: Addison-Wesley. Contributions by eminent scientists and historians, among them Paul Warnke, Herbert York and Philip Morrison. Wide-ranging and extremely detailed but intended for a lay audience. Covers every aspect ‘of the atom in war and peace.
Myrdal, A. (1976). The Game of Disarmament: How the United States and Russia run the arms race. New York: Pantheon. A history of the development of nuclear weapons and of attempts to control and abolish them from the end of World War II to the late ’1970’s. Myrdal’s convincing thesis is that the process of negotiation between the superpowers has been a mutually self-serving exercise designed to regulate not to end the arms race and maintain their strategic superiority and repressive control over “allies” and client states.
Newman, P.C. (1083). True North: Not Strong and Free. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
Overy, B. (1982). How Effective are Peace Movements? Montreal: Harvest House.
Peterson, J. (Ed.) (1983). The Aftermath: The human and ecological consequences of nuclear war. New York: Pantheon. Detailed, comprehensive, rigorously scientific and extensively documented. This is probably the definitive introduction to the subject.
Physicians for Social Responsibility (B.C. Chapter) (1983). Prevention of Nuclear War.
Polanyi, J., & Griffiths, F. (Eds.) (1979). The Dangers of Nuclear War: A Pugwash Symposium. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Consists of papers presented by an array of scientific, military and political experts (Lord Zuckerman, McGeorge Bundy, etc.) on the growing threat of nuclear war. Especially good discussion of the issue of nuclear proliferation.
Pringle, P. (1983). SlOP: The Secret U.S. Plan for Nuclear War. New York: Norton. Clearly written, factual, jargon free and terrifying. Demonstrates the almost complete lack of flexibility and ultimate control in the nuclear war-fighting “game plans” of the Pentagon.
Prins, G. (Ed.) (1982). Defended to Death. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. A meticulously researched, comprehensive analysis of the nuclear arms race by a group of Cambridge dons. Probably the most lucid and wide-ranging treatment of the question. Equipped with an extremely useful array of maps, tables and charts, glossaries, notes.
Regehr, E. (1975). Making a Killing: Canada’s Arms Industry. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
Regehr, E., & Rosenblum, S. (Eds.) (1983). Canada and the Nuclear Arms Race. Toronto: James Lorimer & Co.
Roche, D., (1983). Politicians For Peace. Toronto: New Canada Publi. cations. (Doug Roche’s new book is expected to be released in June).
Ryle, M.H. (1981). The Politics of Nuclear Disarmament. London: Pluto Press.
Saffer, T.H., & Kelly, O.E. (1983). Countdown Zero: GI Victims of U.S. Atomic Testing. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Sanger, C. (1983). Safe and Sound: Disarmament and Development in the 80’s. Ottawa: Deneau Publications.
Scheer, R. (1982). With Enough Shovels. New York: Random House. A terrifying book consisting largely of unguarded remarks captured by a tape recorder concerning nuclear war, the Soviet Union, etc., made by key members of the Reagan administration and the American defence establishment.
Schell, J. (1982). The Fate of the Earth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. A passionate, powerful- unbearably so at times — exploration of the nature and consequences, both known and conjectural, of nuclear war. It may be repetitious and rhetorical in places and his solutions and prescriptions may be nopelessly unrealistic. However, such criticisms miss the point. This is above all, an unexcelled exercise in consciousness-raising.
SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) (1982). The Arms Race and Arms Control. London: Taylor & Francis.
SIPRI (1982). Yearbook. London: Taylor & Francis. This is “the bible” for almost any aspect of peace or military research.” Each volume contains authoritative, scrupulously objective analyses of strategic, theatre and tacticql nuclear weapons in the world’s arsenals; the arms trade; conventional arms stocks; chemical and biological weapons; current military doctrines and strategies, etc.
Smith, D., & Kidron, M. (1983). The War Atlas: Armed Conflict, Armed Peace. London: Pan Books. An excellent graphic presentation of the world military balance since World War ll. Crammed with valuable information. The authors are noted for their maps; the facts speak for themselves.
Smith, G. (1980). Doubletalk: The story of SALT I. New York: Doubleday.
Steele, J. (1983). Soviet Power: The Kremlin’s foreign policy from Brezhnev to Andropov. New York: Simon & Schuster. By the award winning chief foreign correspondent of The Guardian. Convincingly argues that Soviet foreign policy is “less adventurous, energetic and threatening” than most Westerners believe.
Stein, W. (1981). Nuclear Weapons and the Christian Conscience. London: Merlin Press.
Talbott, S. (1980). Endgame: The inside story of SALT II. New York: Harper & Row (Colophon Books).
Thompson, D., et al. (1983). Over our dead bodies: Women against the bomb. London: Virago Press.
Thompson, E.P. (1982). Beyond the Cold War. New York: Pantheon. A collection of eloquent, inspiring essays by the intellectual leader of the European peace movement.
Thompson, E.P. et al. (1982). Exterminism and cold war. London: New Left Books. Essays by prominent British and European leftist intellectuals on various aspects of the arms race and the new cold war.
Thompson, E.P., et al. (1981). Protest and survive. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. A collection of essays by prominent, mainly British, peace researchers, activists and military analysts.
Tsipis, K. (1983). The Bad Harvest: Understanding weapons in a nuclear age. New York: Simon & Schuster. Written by an eminent MIT physicist. Among the most accurate, detailed and reasonable descriptions of the physical and social effects of nuclear weapons.
Unforgettable fire: Pictures drawn by atomic bomb survivors (1982). New York: Pantheon.
United Nations Association of Can-. ada (1980). Canada, the Arms Race and Disarmament. Ottawa: U.N.A.C.
United States Department of Defence (1978). Soviet Military Power. Washington, D.C.: GPO. A blatantly distorted, one-sided presentation of Soviet military capabilities.
United States Office of Technology Assessment (1978). The Effects of Nuclear War. Washington, D.C.: GPO. A basic, factual description of the short- and long-term consequences for American and Soviet civilian populations, economies and societies of four possible nuclear scenarios, ranging from strikes against single cities (Detroit and Leningrad) to all-out attacks on military and economic targets.
Wallis, J. (Ed.) (1982). Waging Peace: A handbook for the struggle to abolish nuclear weapons. New York: Harper & Row. A useful compendium of short articles and excerpts that focuses on moral and Christian arguments against nuclear weapons.
Wallis, M. (1983). Peacemakers: Christian Voices from the New Abolitionist Movement. New York: Harper & Row. Crisis of survival — Crisis of faith. Personal statements by Christian peace activists.
Weiss, Ann E. (1983). The Nuclear Arms Race: Can We
Survive It? Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. An excellent book, written for Junior-Senior high school students. Direct, not. sensational, and factual.
Whence the Threat to Peace? (1982). Moscow: Military Publishing House. The Soviet version of Soviet Military Power. Equally one-sided and equally valueless as a piece of serious analysis.
World Military and Social Expenditures (1982). London: WMSE Publications. A unique and invaluable annual statistical survey that compares military and social expenditures around the world in a succinct, easily accessible format.
Zuckerman, S. (1982). Nuclear illusion and Reality. London: Collins. A concise, authoritative analysis by a former chief scientific advisor to the British government that emphasizes the crucial role of scientists and technocrats in the military R & D establishments in continuing the upward spiral of the arms race and undermining Ihe process of arms control and disarmament.

Most of the books listed here came from a bibliography compiled and annotated by Robert Cupido of CANDIS’ Education Collective. Reader submissions account for the rest of the book listings.

The CANDIS bibliography, a 25-page annotated list of books on nuclear war, ‘disarmament and the peace movement, is available for $3.00 from CANDIS, 736 Bathurst St., Toronto ON M5S 2R4.

The Peace Calendar

Canadian Disarmament Information Service, 1983-1984

This weekend's reading list: