The radical changes in the Soviet bloc and the ending of the Cold War have made the sheer absurdity of the arms race transparent to virtually all observers. Yet none of the current theories of the arms race provides a coherent and systematic account of how, in the belated words of Time magazine, such a "pathology" developed in the first place. Moreover, none of these theories can readily address - much less explain - the rapid shifts in attitudes toward nuclear weapons that occurred at the start and at the end of the 1980s. While not denying explanatory value to bureaucratic, technical, political, and economic factors, The Rise and Fall of Nuclearism focuses attention instead on the cultural dimensions of the arms race. It traces the long-term secular changes in Western societies that made the faith in "nuclearism" possible to begin with; and it draws on sociological concepts to explain how such a misplaced faith accrued to nuclear weapons and why this faith eventually came undone. The concept of "moral panic" is central to the argument. Ungar shows that moral panics were precipitated by authentic surges of fear responding to perceived Soviet challenges to American nuclear supremacy; these panics provided the political leverage for large-scale nuclear buildups and made possible the growth of the military-industrial complex in the United States. Elite efforts to orchestrate panics, however, typically failed or backfired. The key to understanding the episodic nature of the arms race, Ungar argues, lies in the dynamic oscillation between nuclear worship, which viewed the "bomb" as the source of salvation, and nuclear dread, which conjured up images of vaporized cities and an end to civilization. In the concluding chapter he discusses what role nuclear fear - about proliferation, for instance - may continue to play in the post-Cold War world.

Has apocalyptic thinking contributed to some of our nation's biggest problems—inequality, permanent war, and the despoiling of our natural resources? From the Puritans to the present, historian and public policy advocate Betsy Hartmann sheds light on a pervasive but—until now—invisible theme shaping the American mindset: apocalyptic thinking, or the belief that the end of the world is nigh. Hartmann makes a compelling case that apocalyptic fears are deeply intertwined with the American ethos, to our detriment. In The America Syndrome, she seeks to reclaim human agency and, in so doing, revise the national narrative. By changing the way we think, we just might change the world.

"Sixteen states came to be ruled by communist parties during the 20th century. Only five of them remain in power today. This book explores the nature of communist regimes-what they share in common, how they differed from each other, and how they differentially evolved over time. It finds that these regimes all came to power in the context of warfare or its aftermath, followed by the consolidation of power by a revolutionary elite that came to value "revolutionary violence" as the preferred means to an end, based upon Marx's vision of apocalyptic revolution and Lenin's conception of party organization. All these regimes went on to "build socialism" according to a Stalinist template, and were initially dedicated to "anti-imperialist struggle" as members of a "world communist movement." But their common features gave way to diversity, difference and defiance after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. For many reasons, and in many ways, those differences soon blew apart the world communist movement. They eventually led to the collapse of European communism. The remains of communism in China, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, and Cuba were made possible by the first three transforming their economic systems, opening to the capitalist international order, and abandoning "anti-imperialist struggle." North Korea and Cuba have hung on due to the elites avoiding splits visible to the public. Analytically, the book explores, throughout, the interaction among the internal features of communist regimes (ideology and organization), the interactions among them within the world communist movement, and the interaction of communist states with the broader international order of capitalist powers"--

In Nuclear Portraits, scholars from Europe, North America, and Asia demonstrate the complexity, controversy, contradictions, and dangers that surround many aspects of the nuclear industry.

Nuclear technology has been an organizing premise of the international system since 1945. Eight countries have officially acknowledged the possession of nuclear weapons. Many countries have harnessed the atom for electricity generation and other civilian uses. Roughly 440 commercial nuclear reactors operate in thirty countries providing 14 percent of the world's electricity. Volatile oil prices and concerns about climate change have led newly emerging economies in Asia to express keen interest in using nuclear energy to meet growing energy demands. Since the basic technological apparatus for both civilian and military nuclear programs is the same, there are concerns about the potential spread of dual-use technology.The future stability of the international order depends on the responsible management of their nuclear assets by nuclear powers. The relationship between civilian authorities and the military takes on special significance in states with nuclear weapons or near-weapon capability. The constitutional balance of powers, the delegation of authority during wartime and peace, influences from public opinion and bureaucratic structures on the formulation of doctrine, crisis management, and communications with the international media and the general public are influenced by civil-military relations and organizational culture.This volume will be of broad interest to scholars of civil-military relations, political science, and political sociology.

How highly abstract quantum concepts were represented in language, and how these concepts were later taken up by philosophers, literary critics, and new-age gurus. The principles of quantum physics—and the strange phenomena they describe—are represented most precisely in highly abstract algebraic equations. Why, then, did these mathematically driven concepts compel founders of the field, particularly Erwin Schrödinger, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg, to spend so much time reflecting on ontological, epistemological, and linguistic concerns? What is it about quantum concepts that appeals to latter-day Eastern mystics, poststructuralist critics, and get-rich-quick schemers? How did their interpretations and misinterpretations of quantum phenomena reveal their own priorities? In this book, Jennifer Burwell examines these questions and considers what quantum phenomena—in the context of the founders' debates over how to describe them—reveal about the relationship between everyday experience, perception, and language. Drawing on linguistic, literary, and philosophical traditions, Burwell illuminates representational and linguistic problems posed by quantum concepts—the fact, for example, that quantum phenomena exist only as probabilities or tendencies toward being and cannot be said to exist in a particular time and place. She traces the emergence of quantum theory as an analytic tool in literary criticism, in particular the use of wave/particle duality in interpretations of gender differences in the novels of Virginia Woolf and critics' connection of Bohr's Principle of Complementarity to poetic form; she examines the “quantum mysticism” of Fritjof Capra and Gary Zukav; and she concludes by analyzing “nuclear discourse” in the context of quantum concepts, arguing that it, too, adopts a language of the unthinkable and the indescribable.

- Excerpts from and citations to reviews of more than 8,000 books each year, from 109 publications. - Electronic version with expanded coverage, and retrospective version available, see p. 5 and p. 31. - Pricing: Service Basis-Books.

With the end of the Cold War, the subject of weapons proliferation has acquired new interest and prominence. So too have questions about the nature of the world order that will succeed the structure of the last fifty years. This study explores the connections among these topics. It describes the prevailing conceptual model of nuclear proliferation, evaluates proliferation's changing technical features, considers economic and political factors bearing on its future rate and character, and speculates about proliferation's implications on the post-cold-war world order. It also considers the role of international public policy in meeting proliferation's challenges. Arguing that updated approaches are needed, the analysis emphasizes cooperative over coercive approaches to order. It concludes with an assessment of progress to date in meeting these new challenges, arguing that the new agenda is only slowly coming into focus.

This work provides an up-to-date examination of the ways people face dying and bereavement. In this third edition previous chapters are throrughly revised, and new contributors expand areas that have changed significantly. Reflecting the field's complex interdisciplinary character, the chapters cover such diverse areas as psychology, nursing, medicine, AIDS, family studies, sociology, education, philosophy, law, religion, the humanities and political science, whilst highlighting thanatology's core psychological and therapeutic caregiving dimensions. First, the text offers broad examinations of death systems from the vantage points of various cultural, historical and disciplinary perspectives. The second section represents the core of the book, offering detailed surveys of the "data" of death, dying and bereavement as they relate to different phases of our encounter with death as an abstract possibility and concrete reality. Next are chapters addressing a cluster of death-related issues and challenges that confront us at both a societal and individual level - such as AIDS - and finally the volume closes with a few reflections on the complexity of contemporary thanatology, framing some issues and recommendations that deserve greater attention by scholars, researchers, policy makers and practitioners. Also included is a comprehensive resource bibliography on the topic. This text is intended to be of use as a resource for all those interested in reading about death studies, both professionals and students alike.