As the editor of the Saturday Review for more than thirty years, Norman Cousins had a powerful platform from which to help shape American public debate during the height of the Cold War. Under Cousins's leadership, the magazine was considered one of the most influential in the literary world. Cousins's progressive, nonpartisan editorials in the Review earned him the respect of the public and US government officials. But his deep impact on postwar international humanitarian aid, anti-nuclear advocacy, and Cold War diplomacy has been largely unexplored.

In this book, Allen Pietrobon presents the first true biography of Norman Cousins. Cousins was much more important than we realize: he was involved in several secret citizen diplomacy missions during the height of the Cold War and, acting as a private citizen, played a major role in getting the Limited Test Ban Treaty signed. He also wrote JFK's famous 1963 American University commencement speech ("not merely peace in our time but peace for all time").

This book is a fascinating look at the outsized impact that one individual had on the course of American public debate, international humanitarianism, and the Cold War itself. This biography of the vocal anti-communist and anti-nuclear activist's public life will interest readers across the ideological spectrum.

About the Author

Allen Pietrobon (SILVER SPRING, MD) is an assistant professor of global affairs at Trinity Washington University.

Reviews
This eye-opening biography is a primer for the lost art of gentle statecraft.
-Wall Street Journal
Norman Cousins: Peacemaker in the Atomic Age will not only be of keen interest to readers seeking to know more about Cousins's career, or those looking for additional insight and perspective into some of the most important moments of the Cold War, but it may also spark important conversations about processes of social and political change today.
-Diplomatic History
As a sympathetic biographer, Pietrobon does a good job of describing how Cousins's combination of deep moral convictions and political pragmatism managed to make such an impact.
-Lawrence Freedman, Foreign Affairs
Allen Pietrobon's Norman Cousins: Peacemaker in the Atomic Age casts new and important light on one of the most significant movers and shakers in the modern American peace movement. It is an important addition to historical understanding of peace activism and its intersection with public policy during the Cold War.
-Peace and Change
Norman Cousins: Peacemaker in the Atomic Age by scholar Allen Pietrobon confirms the immensity of his humanitarian spirit and influence as a self-appointed secular anti-nuclear prophet
-The Forward



Book Information
ISBN 9781421443706
Author Allen Pietrobon
Format Hardback
Page Count 440
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 726g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 33mm