The Absolute Weapon: Atomic Power and the World Order (First Mention of Nuclear War Deterrence Strategy)

Brodie, Bernard, et al.

Published by Secker & Warburg, New York, 1946

Very rare title that includes the first detailed analysis of the concept of "Nuclear War Deterrence." Very good in khaki boards with slight shelf wear and soiling; interior clean and unmarked. On August 6, 1945, a 35-year-old Yale professor named Bernard Brodie was working as a naval theorist. The next day brought the headline "First Atomic Bomb Dropped on Japan" and within days Brodie discarded sea power and began working on this book. Brodie not only served as editor but also authored two of the chapters, and one--a 12,000-word essay titled "Implications for Military Policy"--became famous. It contained the passage "Thus far the chief purpose of our military establishment has been to win wars. From now on its chief purpose must be to avert them. It can have almost no other useful purpose." Brodie was thus the first to cogently express the idea of nuclear deterrence, the watchword of the Cold War. From a 2016 review by Stanford's Hoover Institution: "It is no exaggeration that, for 70 years, the mainstream of American thought on nuclear war has been a gloss on this volume?s essays, written within weeks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From the fact that two bombs had destroyed two cities, the book extrapolates a full-grown doctrine of war in the nuclear age. It makes categorical statements meant to be valid forevermore as well as to transcend the people, places, and strategies that might be involved.". Seller Inventory # 008938

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Absolute Weapon: Atomic Power and the ...
Publisher: Secker & Warburg, New York
Publication Date: 1946
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition