This book is a treatise on the history of American psychology's role in nuclear war prevention. So writes Marilyn S. Jacobs in the preface to American Psychology in the Quest for Nuclear Peace. This timely and important study will facilitate the work of those psychologists who wish to use their knowledge and expertise in the cause of nuclear war prevention. Jacobs places the psychologist's struggle for nuclear peace in historical perspective and examines the complicated context in which the threat of nuclear war is embedded; one which is influenced by international relations, economic and political systems and weapons technology. Student and professional psychologists, political scientists, as well as the general reader concerned with the threat of nuclear war will find this book imperative reading.
The study begins by examining the psychologist's role of social responsibility in the nuclear dilemma. Why is psychology involved? How did it become involved? What is the nature of the involvement? Is it appropriate that psychology be involved? The book is directed toward these questions. Jacobs interviews prominent individuals in the peace movement, most notably, Herbert Kelman, Irving Janis, Ralph White, and Thomas Milburn. Other chapters explore the psychologist's role as scientist, government consultant, and social activist.
Foreword by M. Brewster Smith
Preface
Introduction
The Psychologist as Scientist
The Psychologist as Government Consultant
The Psychologist as Social Activist
The Beginnings of a Contextualist Role
Can Psychology Reduce the Risk of Nuclear War?
The Psychologists' Manifesto
Psychology and Atomic Energy
Common Statement
Interviews
Bibliography
Index
Reviews
Jacobs, a psychologist in private practice, has put together a good introduction to the history of American psychology in the antinuclear movement. This balanced work is based on a fairly thorough review of the literature and includes interviews with several dozen psychologists and other social scientists. The apparatus includes an index an extensive bibliography, several appendixes, and excellent footnotes. Jacobs does not stress psychoanalytic theory, polemics, or reviews of empirical studies. This book is really just a history that starts in the late 1930s with the parlor pinks of the Depression, picks up in the late 1940s with concerns about the atomic bomb, and goes into the 1980s nuclear freeze campaign. . . . This work, however, remains essential reading to anyone interested in either the history of the peace movement or the history of American psychology. Recommended for graduate libraries.—Choice
A well-researched account of how individual psychologists and organizations have tried to meet the challenge of the nuclear age.—Reference & Research Book News
