America’s premier scientist and peace activist Linus Pauling (1901-94) and Daisaku Ikeda worked for decades in the cause of disarmament, international understanding and universal peace. Both men are absolute pacifists. A timely publication at a critical juncture in world affairs, this book is the product of their discussions held at SULA (a branch of Soka University at Los Angeles) in 1987. While the dialogue spells out their efforts and prescriptions for dealing with the current crisis, it also relates Pauling’s recollections of his childhood, his development as a scientist, and many episodes about his life and the people he has known––Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer among them. This volume gives a broad and personal glimpse of Pauling, recipient of two unshared Nobel Prizes (1954 for chemistry and 1962 for peace). Both men, active and vocal in their advocacy of responsible and humane progress in science, offer pointers to young people, on whose shoulders the problems of the twenty-first century rest.
