The Final Epidemic: Physicians in the Global Antinuclear Movement, 1961-1991

I seek the support of a Boston Medical Library Fellowship in the History of Medicine to conduct research for two weeks in February 2019 in the papers of Bernard Lown (H MS c300) and IPPNW (H MS c432), housed at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. These are unique, core sources for my proposed research: The Final Epidemic: Physicians in the Global Antinuclear Movement, 1961-1991. Through a series of articles aimed at high-impact journals in both history and medicine, this study will analyze the unique, visible, and enduring role played by physicians in the fight against nuclear war. It engages questions of civil society, citizen diplomacy, and political activism in a comparative, transnational framework. With a focus on physician antinuclear activism in the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, The Final Epidemic asks: how did physicians draw on their medical expertise to make the case against nuclear war?