First published in 1983, this book reports from the middle of the nuclear arms race, when the world's two superpowers, the US and the USSR, were adding increasingly sophisticated weapons to their arsenals, reaching a point where they could effectively wipe each other out many times over. Some of Canada's most distinguished critics of the nuclear arms race examine this drift to annihilation, show how Canada was contributing to it, and explain the policies that Canada could have adopted to encourage the reversal of the arms race.

Margaret Laurence was born in 1926 in Neepawa, Manitoba. She published her first novel, This Side of Jordan (one of several works to be set in Africa), in 1960. The Stone Angel, published in 1964, was her second novel. It was an immediate success, as were her four subsequent Manawaka novels: A Jest of God (which won the 1967 Governor General's Award and was later made into the film Rachel, Rachel), The Fire Dwellers, A Bird in the House, and The Diviners — winner of the 1974 Governor General's Award. In 1971, Laurence was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. Remembered also as a peace activist, she died in 1987.

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Ernie Regehr, O.C., is co-founder of Project Ploughshares, one of Canada’s premier peace and security NGOs. He has served as an NGO representative and expert advisor on numerous Government of Canada delegations to multilateral disarmament forums, including Review Conferences of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and UN Conferences on Small Arms. He is the author and editor of a number of books and articles.

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SIMON ROSENBLUM was the national political affairs co-ordinator for Project Ploughshares.

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