| Prescription for Survival: A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness Contributor(s): Lown, Bernard (Author) |
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ISBN: 1576754820 ISBN-13: 9781576754825 Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers OUR PRICE: $31.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: July 2008 Annotation: 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. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs - Political Science | Peace - Biography & Autobiography | Medical (incl. Patients) |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 2008012102 |
| Physical Information: 1.42" H x 6.52" W x 9.14" (1.88 lbs) 464 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: How close we came to extinction, and it is forgotten now." So begins Nobel Prize winner Bernard Lown's story of his fight against the nuclear symptom of what he calls "the disease of militarism." It is still an active and highly contagious disease, but as this extraordinary memoir vividly demonstrates, it can be stopped by concerned citizens working together. In 1981, brimming with anxiety about the escalating nuclear confrontation with the Russians, Lown founded International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) with Soviet cardiologist Evgeni Chazov. They recruited more than 150,000 doctors worldwide to join their movement, held numerous international conferences, met with world political leaders, and appeared on specially produced television programs broadcast throughout the USSR and the United States. In 1985, despite active opposition from the U.S. government and NATO, Lown and Chazov accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of IPPNW. This compelling story is told with a vibrancy of language that illuminates dramatic scenes such as the historic IPPNW symposium (chaired by astrophysicist Carl Sagan) that brought together an American admiral, a Russian general, and a British field marshal at the height of the cold war; Lown, during a routine medical exam, persuading King Hussein of Jordan to join the antinuclear cause; the heart attack of a Russian journalist at an IPPNW press conference; and Lown's frank face-to-face conversations with Mikhail Gorbachev. Nuclear weapons are still very much with us, and we forget this at our peril. Prescription for Survival probes the past to help us understand what drove, and continues to drive, nuclear proliferation and offers a blueprint showing how we can join together across national boundaries to end it. |
