Skip to content
Home/ Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom
Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom
Save Ask us
Published
Feb 24, 2014
ISBN-13
9780393080087

Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom

No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780393080087

During his impeachment proceedings, Richard Nixon boasted, "I can go into my office and pick up the telephone and in twenty-five minutes seventy million people will be dead." Nixon was accurately describing not only his own power but also the power of every American president in the nuclear age.

Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon each contemplated using nuclear weapons--Eisenhower twice, Kennedy three times, Johnson once, Nixon four times. Whether later presidents, from Ford to Obama, considered using them we will learn only once their national security papers are released.

In this incisive, masterfully argued new book, award-winning social theorist Elaine Scarry demonstrates that the power of one leader to obliterate millions of people with a nuclear weapon--a possibility that remains very real even in the wake of the Cold War--deeply violates our constitutional rights, undermines the social contract, and is fundamentally at odds with the deliberative principles of democracy.

According to the Constitution, the decision to go to war requires rigorous testing by both Congress and the citizenry; when a leader can single-handedly decide to deploy a nuclear weapon, we live in a state of "thermonuclear monarchy," not democracy.

The danger of nuclear weapons comes from potential accidents or acquisition by terrorists, hackers, or rogue countries. But the gravest danger comes from the mistaken idea that there exists some case compatible with legitimate governance. There can be no such case. Thermonuclear Monarchy shows the deformation of governance that occurs when a country gains nuclear weapons.

In bold and lucid prose, Thermonuclear Monarchy identifies the tools that will enable us to eliminate nuclear weapons and bring the decision for war back into the hands of Congress and the people. Only by doing so can we secure the safety of home populations, foreign populations, and the earth itself.

Product details

Pub dateFeb 24, 2014
ISBN-100393080080
ISBN-139780393080087
LanguageEnglish
Last updated 2026-09-26 16:08
$24.56 $35.00 29% off
You save $10.44 · list price $35.00
In stock soon — order now to reserve your copy
Delivery by Thursday, October 22, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from International Relations - Arms Control
See all
Foreign Relations of the United States: 1964-1968: National Security Policy
<p><b>NOTE: NO FURTHER DISCOUNT FOR THIS PRINT PRODUCT--OVERSTOCK SALE -- Significantly reduced list price while supplies last</b></p><p>State Department Publication 10921. General Editor: David S. Patterson. Documents United States national security policy during the Johnson administration. This volume presents documentation illuminating responsibility for major foreign policy decisions in the U.S. Government, with emphasis on President Lyndon B. Johnson and his advisers. The documents include memoranda and records of discussions that set forth policy issues and options and show decisions or actions taken. The emphasis is on the development of U.S. policy and on major aspects and repercussions of its execution rather than on the details of policy execution.</p><p>The volume documents as much as possible the roles of President Lyndon Johnson and his key foreign policy advisers, particularly his White House assistants McGeorge Bundy and Walt W. Rostow, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, in the administration's consideration of a wide range of national security issues. Major topics covered in the volume include: analyses of the Soviet military threat, the development of new U.S. weapons, the question of U.S. development and deployment of an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system, chemical and biological weapons, tactical nuclear weapons, counter-insurgency policy, improvement of command and control systems, and military force structure.</p><p>Included is a selection of intelligence estimates and analyses seen by high-level policymakers, especially those that were made available to President Johnson.</p><p>The documents in this volume are presented chronologically according to Washington time or, in the case of conferences, in the order of individual meetings. Memoranda of conversation are placed according to the time and date of the conversation, rather than the date the memorandum was drafted.</p><p>Related products: <br /><b>The Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy, Volume 8, 1961-1964</b> is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01039-1<br /><br /><b>Underestimated: Our Not So Peaceful Future</b> is avaiable here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01175-3<br /><br /><b>Nuclear Weapons Materials Gone Missing: What Does History Teach?</b> can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01175-3<br /><br /><b>Airborne Hazards Related to Deployment i</b>s available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-023-00154-5<br /><br /><b>Russian Ballistic Missile Defense: Rhetoric and Reality</b> is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01163-0<br /><br /><b>Parsing Chinese-Russian Military Exercises</b> is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01135-4<br /><br /><b>Chinese Lessons from Other People's' Wars </b>can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-000-01078-1<br /><br /><b>Seize the High Ground: The Army in Space and Missile Defense</b> can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00392-9<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> </p>
$24.13
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, V. XLI, Western Europe&#x3b; NATO, 1969-1972
<b>NOTE: NO FURTHER DISCOUNT FOR THIS PRINT PRODUCT--OVERSTOCK SALE -- Significantly reduced list price while suppleis last</b><br /><br /><br /> Part of a subseries of the State Department's <i>Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series</i> that documents the most important issues in the foreign policy of the administrations of Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford, this volume documents U.S. regional and bilateral relations with Western Europe from January 20, 1969 to January 20, 1973. <p>In this printed volume, you will find highlights of U.S. policy regarding European economic and political integration, U.S. participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well as U.S. bilateral relations with Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.</p><p>The first chapter focuses on U.S. policy toward Western Europe and Canada as a whole, with a focus on two key issues that faced the Nixon administration: <br /><br /> 1) how to maintain the cohesion of the Atlantic Alliance at a time of reduced tensions with the Soviet Union, and<br /> 2) how to respond to the emergence of serious economic tensions among the advanced industrialized nations.<br /><br /> The country chapters in this volume emphasize the key issues that affected each bilateral relationship. Political scientists, historians, foreign policy and international relations scholars, and students pursuing coursework in world history, political science, and international relations may be interested in this historical, primary source volume for research.<br /><br /> Related products: <br /> Other products within the renowned <b>Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series</b> can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/international-foreign-affairs/foreign-relations-united-states-series-frus<br /><br /><b>Resources about International Organizations & United Nations </b>are available here<b> https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/international-foreign-affairs/united-nations-international-organizations<br /><br /> Foreign Affairs & Policy resources collection</b> can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/international-foreign-affairs/foreign-affairs-policy<br /><br /><b>Russia and the Soviet Union collection</b> is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/international-foreign-affairs/russia-soviet-union<br /><br /><b>Richard Nixon collection </b>is available here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/us-military-history/presidential-history/37-richard-m-nixon<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> </p><p><b> </b></p>
$99.06