Overview

"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."

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9780393080087

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A few years ago General Lee Butler, former head of the U.S. Strategic Command, condemned the faith in nuclear weapons to which his life had been wrongly dedicated and the breathtaking audacity in maintaining them when we should stand trembling in the face of our folly and united in our commitment to abolish its most deadly manifestations. In this fascinating study, Elaine Scarry adds rich historical, philosophical, literary, and legal depth to Butler s grim warnings, with novel and provocative insights. That we have escaped disaster so far is a near miracle. Scarry s remarkable contribution should inspire us to abolish this colossal folly. --Noam Chomsky

Author Information

Elaine Scarry is the Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. Her book The Body in Pain was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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