New book explores Cabinet debates over nuclear weapons
New book explores Cabinet debates over nuclear weapons
07 November 2007
Peter Hennessy´s new book, Cabinets and the Bomb, reveals top-level private debates about Britain´s use of nuclear weapons.
Launched at The National Archives last night, the book contains declassified Cabinet papers that reveal the private debates between prime ministers, civil servants, scientists and intelligence officers as they made decisions about Britain´s nuclear weapons.
Cabinet papers
Prize-winning political historian Peter Hennessy provides a narrative commentary that covers developments right up to the debate in Parliament in spring 2007. Documentary evidence published in the book ranges from the first breakthrough made by British scientists in 1940, to the formal December 2006 exchange of letters between Blair and Bush on the upgrade of Trident, and includes Cabinet papers now held at The National Archives.
The author says:
"The nuclear weapons question runs through recent British history like an irradiated thread. Given the high level of technical secrecy and political sensitivity in which the bomb was embedded, it represents a fascinating hidden history of 20th century Britain. There is a strong element of now-it-can-be-told in this book."
Cabinets and the Bomb is available for £17.96 from our online bookshop.
Related content on our website:
Cabinet papers 1971-1976 online
The National Archives wins grant to digitise Cabinet papers 1917-1975
