{"product_id":"9780253111524","title":"Dew of Death: The Story of Lewisite, America's World War I Weapon of Mass Destruction","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Dr. Vilensky raises important concerns regarding the threats posed\u003cbr\u003e by lewisite and other weapons of mass destruction. As he describes,\u003cbr\u003e non-proliferation programs are a vital component in the War on Terror.\" --\u003cbr\u003e Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Joel Vilensky's book\u003cbr\u003e is a detailed and immensely useful account of the development and history of one of\u003cbr\u003e the major chemical weapons.... We will always know how to make lewisite, the 'Dew of\u003cbr\u003e Death,' but that does not mean that we should, or be compelled to accept such\u003cbr\u003e weapons in our lives.\" -- from the Foreword by Richard Butler, former head of\u003cbr\u003e UN Special Commission to Disarm Iraq\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1919, when the Great War\u003cbr\u003e was over, the New York Times reported on a new chemical weapon with \"the\u003cbr\u003e fragrance of geranium blossoms,\" a poison gas that was \"the climax of this\u003cbr\u003e country's achievements in the lethal arts.\" The name of this substance was\u003cbr\u003e lewisite and this is its story -- the story of an American weapon of mass\u003cbr\u003e destruction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDiscovered by accident by a graduate student and\u003cbr\u003e priest in a chemistry laboratory at the Catholic University of America in\u003cbr\u003e Washington, D.C., lewisite was developed into a weapon by Winford Lewis, who became\u003cbr\u003e its namesake, working with a team led by James Conant, later president of Harvard\u003cbr\u003e and head of government oversight for the U.S.'s atomic bomb program, the Manhattan\u003cbr\u003e Project. After a powerful German counterattack in the spring of 1918, the government\u003cbr\u003e began frantic production of lewisite in hopes of delivering 3,000 tons of the stuff\u003cbr\u003e to be ready for use in Europe the following year. The end of war came just as the\u003cbr\u003e first shipment was being prepared. It was dumped into the sea, but not forgotten.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoel A. Vilensky tells the intriguing story of the discovery and\u003cbr\u003e development of lewisite and its curious history. During World War II, the United\u003cbr\u003e States produced more than 20,000 tons of lewisite, testing it on soldiers and\u003cbr\u003e secretly dropping it from airplanes. In the end, the substance was abandoned as a\u003cbr\u003e weapon because it was too unstable under most combat conditions. But a weapon once\u003cbr\u003e discovered never disappears. It was used by Japan in Manchuria and by Iraq in its\u003cbr\u003e war with Iran. The Soviet Union was once a major manufacturer. Strangely enough,\u003cbr\u003e although it was developed for lethal purposes, lewisite led to an effective\u003cbr\u003e treatment for a rare neurological disease.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Indiana University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47067816362224,"sku":"9780253111524","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780253111524_p0.jpg?v=1763680526","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780253111524","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}