The Struggle Against the Bomb: One World or None: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement through 1953 and Resisting the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement 1954-1970 (review)

Abstract

52Quaker History tieth century events. The book is also an intellectual history, showing the theological changes in Quakerism in the twentieth century. This raises the question ofhow much the experience ofCanada Young Friends, orFriends generally in Canada, part ofa small yearly meeting, is similar or dissimilar to that ofFriends in New England orNorth Carolina or Great Britain. Much of the work in Quaker history focuses on the 17th, 18th and early 19th century story ofthe Society ofFriends. We now need more studies, such as this one, which canexplain the majorchange in the organizationandbeliefs ofQuakers from the controversies ofthe mid 19th centuryto thepresentday. Christopher DensmoreUniversity Archives State University ofNew York at Buffalo. The Struggle Against the Bomb: One World or None: A History ofthe World Nuclear Disarmament Movement through 1953 and Resisting the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement 19541970 . By Lawrence S. Wittner. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993, 1997. Appendix, notes, bibliography, and index, vol. I, xiii, 456 pp. $55.00, pb. $16.95; vol. II, xiv, 641 pp. $65.00, $24.95. In the twentieth century, Quakers' collective and individual actions to work out the political implications of the peace testimony have been the most important point ofcontact ofFriends and the wider society. Unfortunately , we still lack a comprehensive history ofQuakerpeace work, perhaps because scholars have been unwilling to attempt such a complicated story. Lawrence Wittner should make Quaker historians blanch at our timidity. His topic is a history ofopposition to the atomic bomb, beginning with the reservations about nuclear power by scientists which, after Hiroshima, became a world-wide phenomenon. In the two volumes now published (a third isprojected) he carries the storyfrom 1945 until the creation ofan arms control regime with the Test Ban Treaty and Salt I. In an era in which professional historians concentrate upon the microcosm, Wittner's scope reminds one of the ambitions ofgreat earlier historians like Henry Adams and Lawrence Henry Gibson, and I am happy to report that his erudition, organization, and writing skills are up to the task. When volume three is completed, Wittner's work should be a contender for a Pulitzer orNational Book Award. The research base for these two volumes is enormous—one hundred sixty pages offootnotes, with most citations based on manuscripts coming fromnumerous libraries inmanycountries. Wittnerhas consultedpresidential papers, the archives of peace organizations, records from the Soviet Book Reviews53 Union, Japan, and Western Europe, and utilized Freedom ofInformation access to find out activities ofthe FBI, CIA, and AEC. In addition he has interviewed notable figures in the peace movement. Appearing in these volumes as significant actors are Quaker organizations like theBritishandAmerican Service Committees and Yearly Meeting Peace Committees and individuals including Clarence Pickett, A. J. Muste, Kathleen Lonsdale, Earle and Barbara Reynolds, and Albert Bigelow as well as two more famous but less reputable birth-right Friends, atomic spy Klaus Fuchs and Richard Nixon. In addition, Friends participated in the activities ofmany groups like War Resisters League, Fellowship ofReconciliation , Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Women Strike for Peace and Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. The British National Council for the Abolition ofNuclear Weapons assured Bertrand Russell that it was not "a left wing organization. The only bias on the Executive Committee is in favor ofthe Society ofFriends" which had three ofthe seven positions (II, 96). The influence of Friends and pacifists, while disproportionate to their numbers, should not be overstated, for successes came because the antiatomicbombmovementattractedsupportintheWest , theCommunistblock and non-aligned nations. Wittner argues that agitation against having, using, and testing the bomb became a world-wide phenomenon, the most wide-spread reform movement in history. This generalization is difficult to prove because the post-1945 period also saw mass movements against colonialism, racism, and for women's rights. Like ban-the-bomb activities, these movements had successes, butthe underlying causes prompting moral outrage are still present. The emphasis in these volumes is less upon the internal history ofpeace organizations and their leaders than with their interactions and influence upon politics. Because the U.S., U.S.S.R., United Kingdom, France, and China created nuclear stockpiles and espoused deterrence, it is easy to conclude that the ban...