A Peril And A Hope : The Scientists' Movement In America, 1945-47

A Peril and a Hope : The Scientists' Movement in America, 1945-47

The political influence of scientists on such matters as arms control and environmental protection is now being put to the test. Scientists first entered the arena of political action during the first years of the atomic era, and the successes and frustrations of that movement should provide a much-needed historic perspective on the present. That is one reason that this new edition of A Peril and a Hope-a condensation of the original-is being issued at this time. Another is simply that it is excellent contemporary history, as these reviews attest:"It would be difficult to find a person more suitable to write this history than Dr. Smith. A PhD in political science and a trained historian, she is also the wife of a scientist who took a major part in the making of the atom bomb at Los Alamos; she was, therefore, right on the spot throughout the critical period, with plenty of opportunities to meet and to get to know the leading figures in the drama. However, she has successfully resisted the temptation to tell the story from her own recollections. A Peril and a Hope is a scholarly book, based on published material, memoranda, diaries, official and unofficial documents and-most valuable-personal interviews which she arranged in the recent years with surviving senior scientists."-New Scientist"Beginning in December of 1943, when Niels Bohr and his son Aage came to the Manhattan project...she carries forward a clear story of the complex events that led first to the dropping of the bomb and then to the development of the political role of the laboratory scientist in the first two years after the close of the war...fully and critically documented, compassionately written, painstakingly detailed. It is both lively and exact...."-Philip Morrison, Scientific American"The book throws some fresh light on the struggle in the United States to free nuclear energy from military control and to avoid the domination of nuclear research by secrecy or security restrictions. It also illuminates the initial approaches to the international control of nuclear activities, but its chief value seems to lie in pointing out how much is demanded of scientists who are seriously concerned about the social consequences of their work."-Nature