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Prescription for Survival by Bernard Lown, M.D.
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Prescription for Survival

A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness

By Bernard Lown, M.D.

By Bernard Lown, M.D.

Best Seller
Hardcover $35.00

Jul 14, 2008 | ISBN 9781576754825

Prescription for Survival by Bernard Lown, M.D.
Hardcover $35.00
Jul 14, 2008 | ISBN 9781576754825

Buy from Other Retailers:

  • $35.00

    Jul 14, 2008 | ISBN 9781576754825

    Buy from Other Retailers:

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About Prescription for Survival

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.

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Product Details

Category: Historical Figure Biographies & Memoirs

Hardcover | $35.00
Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Jul 14, 2008 | 464 Pages | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 | ISBN 9781576754825

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Praise

“This absorbing book illustrates how the medical and moral views of a committed and eloquent physician and his colleagues can alter the thinking and the policies of the public, the press, and politicians and military leaders. If humanity survives the nuclear arms race, Dr. Lown will deserve much of the credit for our survival.”
—VICTOR W. SIDEL, MD, Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine

“Dr. Lown’s unwavering confidence in the justness of his cause, coupled with his courage and overwhelming determination, helped him to over- come every obstacle. This is a book I would prescribe for every friend of civilization and opponent of nuclear war (in other words, every sane human being).”
—JEROME RUBIN, founder of Lexis/Nexis

“Prescription for Survival describes a movement of physicians that changed the course of the mightiest powers on Earth. The prescription offered is equally relevant to winning the current struggles of impoverished and oppressed humanity for peace and justice.”
—DR. MUBASHIR HASAN, author, columnist, leader of the India-Pakistan peace movement, and former Minster of Finance, Planning, and Development, Pakistan

“The story of IPPNW and how it managed against all odds to bring sense to a potentially explosive situation makes for a fascinating read. There is much to be learned from this book on how to mobilize the opinions of citizens and leaders in the search for a greater good.”
—V. KASTURI RANGAN, Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing and cofounder of the Social Enterprise Initiative, Harvard Business School

“A unique fabric of history woven with heart threads! It says so much about priority, what is needed when we are threatened existentially, what is possible when the right man or woman at the right place does the right thing with vision and perseverance, igniting the spark of enthusiasm in other human beings of kindred spirit. For me this unique experience is the foundation of my conviction that we can also stop climate change and keep our beautiful planet inhabitable, together.”
—DR. MARTIN VOSSELER, environmental activist and cofounder of Swiss Physicians for Social Responsibility

Table Of Contents

Foreword by Howard Zinn
Prologue: Back to the Future
Chapter 1 The Final Epidemic
Chapter 2 Early Russian connections
Chapter 3 The Sudden Death Task Force: US-Soviet collaboration
Chapter 4 The Friendship Strategy: Building trust to sustain life
Chapter 5 For your six months old grandson
Chapter 6 “You can’t trust the Russians”
Chapter 7 “Doctors of the World Unite”
Chapter 8 More sweat, less blood
Chapter 9 Military brass came marching in
Chapter 10 We dominate Soviet TV for one hour
Chapter 11 The Catholic Church defends my left flank
Chapter 12 Pay attention to Gorbachev! But who is he?
Chapter 13 A nuclear game of chicken: Reagan leads the Cold War
Chapter 14 Message for tomorrow: the 3rd Congress in Amsterdam
Chapter 15 Brinkmanship – Flight KAL 007 downed
Chapter 16 Andropov’s message in a time of crisis.
Chapter 17 The year without a summer-Nuclear Winter
Chapter 18 “No arsonist will be invited”
Chapter 19 Endless daylight in Helsinki
Chapter 20 Mothers fight back
Chapter 21 “No peace without justice”
Chapter 22 Gorbachev challenges the nuclear status quo
Chapter 23 The Medical Prescription: No trust required
Chapter 24 The Nobel Prize: My Mother Expected It
Chapter 25 A Space travelers puzzle
Chapter 26 Cooperation not confrontation
Epilogue From Communism to Terrorism
Appendix: IPPNW Time Line
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Author

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