Reviews

Roger Walsh, Staying Alive: The Psychology Of Human Survival, Shamb­hala (New Science Library), Boulder, Colorado, 1984.

Roger Walsh has succeeded in pre­paring a brief ,highly readable over­view of psychological issues in the present global crisis. The book is organized into four sections:

1. Crises of population, resour­ces, the environment and the threat of nuclear annihila­tion;

2. Psychological causes of the crises are explored;

3. Effective responses are dis­cussed; and

4. The psychological impact of “living on the brink”.

Dr. Walsh’s hopeful conclusion: “The magnitude of our difficulties may be matched only by the magnitude of our opportunities….There is ex­citing and desperately needed work to be done, and we are privileged to have the opportunity of doing it.” (Pg. 93.)

STAYING ALIVE has about 90 pages of text, 120 quotations, forwards by the Dalai Lama and Linus Pauling, 20 pages of notes and references and a 6-page appendix of organizations concerned with peace.

-Floyd Rudmin

F.H. Knelman, Reagan, God And The Bomb, McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, October, 1985. 350 pages, $22.95.

Professor Knelman, Quebec Chapter member, former Science for Peace National Board Member, and author of the acclaimed Nuclear Energy: The Unforgiving Technology (1976), dis­cussed his latest book at a Toronto Chapter seminar Nov. 15. His analy­sis of the New Right and of the po­litical advisors surrounding Pres. Reagan focussed on the religious fundamentalist views which lead to a belief in the Bomb as an instrument of salvation as Armageddon ap­proaches.

The President’s advisors who hold such views see arms control as meaningless and are dedicated to a quest for superiority in the arms race – which they endorse. They see this arms race as the best means of bringing about the capitulation and economic suffocation of the USSR.

Despite the power of these advi­sors, Prof. Knelman is optimistic about the future. He sees their power eroding at the hands of Con­gress.

Anton Colijn and Trudy Govier, U. of Calgary Peace & Conflict Re­solution Study Group, Canada’s Par­ticipation In NORAD: Brief submitted to the Standing Committee on Exter­nal Affairs and National Defense, October, 1985.

John Polanyi, Norad’s Future In Doubt, Brief to the Standing Com­mittee of External Affairs and National Defense. Presented in Ottawa Nov. 19, 1985. In his Brief Prof. Polanyi discusses links between Star Wars and NORAD.

Anatol Rapoport and Derek Paul for Science for Peace, Competitive­ness And Security, a Brief on the External Affairs Department’s Green Paper submitted to the Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons on Canada’s International Relations, November, 1985.