Press: Second Thoughts on Schell

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Second thoughts notwithstanding, Schell's lofty polemic is the nonfiction sensation of the publishing season. It had an unusually large first printing of 50,000 copies, and another 75,000 copies are on the way to bookstores. The Book-of-the-Month Club has made The Fate of the Earth available to its 1.2 million members at bargain-basement rates: $2.25, more than $9 less than the list price. Such wide readership will no doubt sustain debate over nuclear weapons. And that is to the good—especially if readers remember that improving the fate of the earth requires hardheaded prescriptions, not just warnings of the Apocalypse.