Abolition

'Extinction threatens not so much each person's life as the meaning of our lives. It threatens life with meaninglessness as individual death never can. In doing so, it not only encompasses all human life but reaches deep into each life, requiring each of us to make this business his own.'
In his recent work The Fate of the Earth, Jonathan Schell gave the definitive account of the nuclear predicament. Now, turning from an analysis of the problem to its solution, he offers a way out-a path that the world might follow to full nuclear disarmanent.
Nuclear weapons have shared the earth with us for forty years. With the increasing effectiveness of these machines and proliferation of nuclear warheads, can we still imagine that they will remain eternally within an inch of exploding and yet will never explode? And that the concept of "deterrence" alone will protect the earth, not merely for forty years but forever?
In this electrifying book, Jonathan Schell makes a proposal that may well point the way out of what has so far looked like a tunnel to nothingness. It is a proposal that absolutely transcends current political categories. It will make every bit as much sense to those who view the Soviet Union with scepticism and distrust it, as it will to those who feel that a great share of the blame for the present peril lies with the United States. It will appeal to those whose first concern is for security, and it will appeal to those whose first concern is for peace. It is a seemingly impossible book: a clear-eyed and rational look at our current situation, which amazingly manages to offer us hope.