ENDORSEMENTS

“This is not just a remarkable history —personal and political—but a call to action. It is a plea to readers to speak up, to act. It tells us that history only takes a turn for the better when citizens, refusing to wait for governments, decide they must themselves join the long march toward a peaceful world.”

—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States

“The former head of the US Strategic Command, General Lee Butler, renouncing his life-long commitment to nuclear arms, issued a plea for sanity: `By what authority do succeeding generations of leaders in the nuclear-weapons states usurp the power to dictate the odds of continued life on our planet?’ There is no better response than the dramatic story recounted here by the remarkable physician and peace activist Bernard Lown, whose courageous efforts have helped forge a path that might save the species from suicide, if enough people can muster the kind of will and determination and `hard-headed optimism’ that he has so impressively demonstrated, and eloquently recorded here.”

—Noam Chomsky

 “The doctors’ movement to eliminate nuclear weapons was one of the most powerful but least well-known political developments of the last quarter-century.  Lown’s rendering is not only a fascinating insider’s tale of his experience moving at the highest levels of government but a powerful analysis for breaking the stalemate of escalating militarism and post-9/11 conflict. One of the most important books of the twenty-first century.”

—Juliet Schor, author of The Overworked American and editor of Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the Twenty-First Century

“This fascinating saga of a small band of remarkable physicians who helped build an international movement to save humankind from nuclear destruction contains important lessons for mobilizing public opinion today to address crucial challenges such as global warming, nuclear proliferation, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. Bernard Lown's account of the profoundly important movement he helped to create is must-reading for anyone interested in how social and policy change comes about.”

—Jay A. Winsten, PhD, Associate Dean, Harvard School of Public Health

“One doesn't expect an eminent cardiologist to speak out on nuclear war, to organize a global network of physicians to confront the issue, and to make its enormous risks clear to the world; and ultimately to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. This wonderful book by that very cardiologist, Dr. Bernard Lown, recounts this compelling saga. It is a powerful book by any standard, made even more so by the grace, fluidity, and richness of his prose, surely the equal of our nation's finest writers (further enriched by apt quotations from the great poets and playwrights of the ages). Every caring, concerned citizen of the globe will want this book at the top of his or her reading list. (Full disclosure: I was a patient of Dr. Lown's for some 20 years; I give him credit for the fact that I'm here today to praise not only his idealism but his skill as a physician).”

— John C. Bogle, Founder of The Vanguard Group, author of The Little Book of Common Sense Investing