Summary
If the global focus of the new millennium could be characterized by four words, those words would be “weapons of mass destruction.” The millennium was barely a few months old when a cruelly innovative deployment of weapons of mass destruction forever altered our course. Four jet fuel-laden hijacked passenger airliners became bombs that resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. Within a period of minutes, the U.S. government shifted priorities and made the elimination of the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) its primary focus. From a war that has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and likely claimed thousands of lives in the Middle East to the revamping of seemingly all domestic activities to make them less vulnerable to terrorist attacks, large and small, the U.S. economy is being dramatically impacted by the need to prevent the development and deployment of WMDs.
Weapons of Mass Destruction, a new volume in the Library in a Book series, provides readers with an ideal starting point for understanding and researching this topic. It is essential that people understand as much as possible about WMDs, including what they are, what they can do, how and why they have evolved, and what kinds of efforts have been formulated to halt their proliferation. Aimed at students and general readers alike, this new volume outlines basic information on WMDs and provides additional in-depth references for further research.
Specifications
5 maps and graphs. Index. Appendix. Bibliography. Glossary. Chronology.
About the Author(s)
Mary Byrd Davis holds an M.S. in library science from Simmons College and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the past, she has held positions in the library science field, including acquisitions librarian at Northern Michigan University; assistant librarian for reader services at Georgetown College in Georgetown, KY; and an acquisitions and reference librarian at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY. Davis has since worked as a freelance writer, editor, and translator. She is the author and coauthor of numerous books and articles, some of which cover national security and nuclear power, including The Military Civilian Link: A Guide to the French Nuclear Industry and Critical Hour: Three Mile Island, the Nuclear Legacy, and National Security.
Arthur H. Purcell holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University McCormick School and a B.S. in materials science from Cornell University. An environmental management and policy specialist, author, and educator, Purcell is the founding president of the Resource Policy Institute, a nonprofit energy and environmental research and education group started in Washington, D.C. Clients have ranged from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the UN Economic Commission for Europe to SONY. Purcell is the author of more than 160 books and articles.