Read more
Covering the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War, the origins and early course of the Cold War, and the advent of the hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s, Churchill and the Bomb explores a still neglected aspect of Winston Churchill's career - his relationship with and thinking on nuclear weapons. Kevin Ruane shows how Churchill went from regarding the bomb as a weapon of war in the struggle with Nazi Germany to viewing it as a weapon of communist containment (and even punishment) in the early Cold War before, in the 1950s, advocating and arguably pioneering what would become known as "mutually assured destruction" as the key to preventing the Cold War flaring into a calamitous nuclear war. While other studies of Churchill have touched on his evolving views on nuclear weapons, few historians have given this hugely important issue the kind of dedicated and sustained treatment it deserves. In Churchill and the Bomb, however, Kevin Ruane has undertaken extensive primary research in Britain, the United States and Europe, and accessed a wide array of secondary literature, in producing an immensely readable yet detailed, insightful and provocative account of Churchill's nuclear hopes and fears.
List of contents
AcknowledgementsAbbreviations used in textIntroduction: So Many Winston ChurchillsPart I: War1. Only Connect2. Tube Alloys3. Allies at War4. The Quebec Agreement5. Mortal Crimes6. Bolsheviks, Bombs and Bad Omens7. Trinity and PotsdamPart II: Cold War8. Heavy Metal, Iron Curtain9. Warmonger/Peacemonger10. To the Summit11. Atomic Angles12. Hurricane Warning13. A Pill to End it All14. H-bomb Fever15. The July Days16. Sturdy Child of TerrorConclusion: '. if God wearied of mankind'Abbreviations used in notesBibliographyIndex
About the author
Kevin Ruane is Professor of Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK
Summary
Covering the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War, the origins and early course of the Cold War, and the advent of the hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s, Churchill and the Bomb explores a still neglected aspect of Winston Churchill's career – his relationship with and thinking on nuclear weapons. Kevin Ruane shows how Churchill went from regarding the bomb as a weapon of war in the struggle with Nazi Germany to viewing it as a weapon of communist containment (and even punishment) in the early Cold War before, in the 1950s, advocating and arguably pioneering what would become known as “mutually assured destruction” as the key to preventing the Cold War flaring into a calamitous nuclear war.
While other studies of Churchill have touched on his evolving views on nuclear weapons, few historians have given this hugely important issue the kind of dedicated and sustained treatment it deserves. In Churchill and the Bomb, however, Kevin Ruane has undertaken extensive primary research in Britain, the United States and Europe, and accessed a wide array of secondary literature, in producing an immensely readable yet detailed, insightful and provocative account of Churchill’s nuclear hopes and fears.
Foreword
Charts Winston Churchill's evolving views on nuclear weapons, beginning with the war-time development of the atomic bomb and continuing into the Cold War.
Additional text
In his excellent study Ruane describes three “incarnations” of Churchill and nuclear weapons during the period 1941 to 1955: the atomic bomb-maker, the atomic diplomatist, and the nuclear peace-maker … Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War is a well-researched, detailed, and comprehensive study of Churchill and nuclear weapons.
Report
[An] astute chronicle of a long overlooked aspect of Churchill's service to Great Britain . Ruane makes a compelling case for the atomic bomb as both a military and a diplomatic instrument, as seen from the perspective of a power vulnerable to Soviet devastation a decade earlier than the United States . Kevin Ruane has refined our understanding of a towering figure of the twentieth century. Michigan War Studies Review
