Is Peace Possible?

Kathleen Lonsdale was a groundbreaking chemist who was instrumental in developing the science of crystallography. She was also a midlife convert to Quakerism who campaigned for peace and prison reform. Horrified by the dropping of the first atomic bombs, Lonsdale felt that the entire scientific community was now tainted by the violence it had enabled. Published in 1957, Is Peace Possible? was her attempt to make amends for this communal guilt by demonstrating that science can bring peace as well as war, and can address the “big questions” generally left to the humanities. 

In crystalline language and logic honed from a lifetime of relying on the sharpness of her mind to cut through barriers of class and gender, and refusing to be bullied by received wisdom about war’s inevitability, Kathleen Lonsdale’s Is Peace Possible? is a work of quiet, elegant sanity. It is a snapshot of a particular moment in history, but its themes are eternally relevant, and perhaps even more necessary now than when it was written.

About Marginalian Editions

Marginalian Editions is a collaboration between Sarah McNally of McNally Jackson Books and writer Maria Popova, who selects and introduces forgotten masterworks that deserve a second life—uncommon books at the intersection of wonder and our search for meaning, from science and philosophy to poetry and children’s literature.

“Is Peace Possible? [is] perspectival and prophetic, [written] in the middle of the Cold War that never erupted into the nuclear holocaust it could have been . . . Here we are, survivors of an abated apocalypse, here to tell its story: the story of the triumph of the possible over the probable, the triumph of peace.”

—Maria Popova, from the Foreword

“Kathleen Lonsdale, X-ray crystallographer, pacifist and prison reformer, was an outstanding scientist who had a number of firsts for female scientists to her name, including being one of the first two women elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, first female tenured professor at University College London (UCL), first woman president of the International Union of Crystallography and first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science . . . A dedicated pacifist, she grew increasingly worried about the role science was being asked to play in military developments and helped to found the Atomic Scientists' Association. She further helped to establish the Pugwash Movement, which worked towards ending armed conflict, and was a member of the Quaker East-West Committee. She published extensively on pacifism, her most notable book being Is Peace Possible? (1957).”

—Brian May, The Irish Times

Dame Kathleen Lonsdale (1903–1971) was an Irish pacifist, prison reformer and crystallographer. She was one of the first two women elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1945, first woman tenured professor at University College London, first woman president of the International Union of Crystallography, and first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Maria Popova is the creator of The Marginalian (founded in 2006 under the name Brain Pickings), which is included in the Library of Congress’s permanent digital archive of culturally valuable materials. She is the author of Figuring and Traversals, the editor of A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader, and the maker of The Universe in Verse—a live celebration of the wonder of reality through stories of science winged with poetry, which is now a book.

Is Peace Possible? • Hardcover ISBN: 9781961341197

Apr 15, 2025 • Marginalian Editions

6" x 8.5" • 144 pages • $24.00

eBook ISBN: 9781961341203