The Bomb Nuclear Weapons in their Historical, Strategic and Ethical Context

This tightly argued and profoundly thought provoking book tackles a huge subject: the coming of the nuclear age with bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and the ways in which it has changed our lives since. Dr Heuser sets these events in their historical context and tackles key issues about the effect of nuclear weapons on modern attitudes to conflict, and on the ethics of warfare. Ducking nothing, she demystifies the subject, seeing `the bomb' not as something unique and paralysing, but as an integral part of the strategic and moral context of our time. For a wide multidisciplinary and general readership.

List of Figures lXList of Tables xAcknowledgements xiIntroduction 11. A Turning Point of World War II? 7A turning point in World War II 8Was the bombing necessary? 19The suffering of the victims 242. A Turning Point in Strategy? 35Air strategy until 1945 35Air strategy in practice since World War II 65Nuclear strategies 853. A Turning Point in the Development of'Total War'? 102Definitions of 'total war' and the link withtotalitarianism 104Have any wars prior to World War II beenTotal Wars? 114The war aims of the major powers in World War II 119Conclusions: What is the relationship betweennuclear war and Total War? 1314. A Turning Point in the Thinking about theMorality Of War? 135Immorality of war 136Pacifism before the nineteenth century 139From the wars of the French Revolution toWorld War I 143Socialist opposition to nationalist wars 145Pacifism in the inter-war period 147Hiroshima and Nagasaki 154Peace movements directed by the USSR since 1945:from political tool to political self-destruction 158Anti-nuclear protests in Protestant cultures 162War, nuclear weapons and non-Protestant cultures 175Conclusion 1895. A Turning Point in the History of Warfare andInter-societal Relations? 192Human history and the history of warfare 193Societal and cultural-ideological causes of war 207Conclusions 222Useful Further Reading 224Index

D.B.G. Heuser