Peace
A History of Movements and Ideas

A definitive history of peace advocacy and an analysis of its religious and intellectual roots.

David Cortright (Author)

9780521670005, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 April 2008

390 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 2.3 cm, 0.62 kg

'David Cortright … has set out a clear and up-to-date history of the ideas and movements that make up the colors on the peace pallet.' Peace Matters

Veteran scholar and peace activist David Cortright offers a definitive history of the human striving for peace and an analysis of its religious and intellectual roots. This authoritative, balanced, and highly readable volume traces the rise of peace advocacy and internationalism from their origins in earlier centuries through the mass movements of recent decades: the pacifist campaigns of the 1930s, the Vietnam antiwar movement, and the waves of disarmament activism that peaked in the 1980s. Also explored are the underlying principles of peace - nonviolence, democracy, social justice, and human rights - all placed within a framework of 'realistic pacifism'. Peace brings the story up-to-date by examining opposition to the Iraq War and responses to the so-called 'war on terror'. This is history with a modern twist, set in the context of current debates about 'the responsibility to protect', nuclear proliferation, Darfur, and conflict transformation.

1. What is peace
Part I. Movements: 2. The first peace societies
3. Towards internationalism
4. Facing Fascism
5. Debating Disarmament
6. Confronting the Cold War
7. Banning the bomb
8. Refusing war
Part II. Themes: 9. Religion
10. A force more powerful
11. Democracy
12. Social Justice
13. Responsibility to protect
14. A moral equivalent
15. Realizing disarmament
16. Realistic pacifism.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Sociology [JHB], History of ideas [JFCX], History of religion [HRAX], Religion: general [HRA], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Peace studies & conflict resolution [GTJ]