Peace: A World History / Edition 1

by Antony Adolf

Overview

How peace has been made and maintained, experienced and imagined is not only a matter of historical interest, but also of pressing concern. Peace: A World History is the first study to explore the full spectrum of peace and peacemaking from prehistoric to contemporary times in a single volume aimed at improving their prospects.

By focusing on key periods, events, people, ideas and texts, Antony Adolf shows how the inspiring possibilities and pragmatic limits of peace and peacemaking were shaped by their cultural contexts and, in turn, shaped local and global histories. Diplomatic, pacifist, legal, transformative non-violent and anti-war movements are just a few prominent examples.

Proposed and performed in socio-economic, political, religious, philosophical and other ways, Adolf's presentation of the diversity of peace and peacemaking challenges the notions that peace is solely the absence of war, that this negation is the only task of peacemakers, and that history is exclusively written by military victors. “Without the victories of peacemakers and the resourcefulness of the peaceful,” he contends, “there would be no history to write.”

This book is essential reading for students, scholars, policy-shapers, activists and general readers involved with how present forms of peace and peacemaking have been influenced by those of the past, and how future forms can benefit by taking these into account.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745641263
Publisher:	Polity Press
Publication date:	03/16/2009
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	737,800
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 3.00(d)

About the Author

Antony Adolf is an independent scholar.

Table of Contents

Introduction: How Does Peace Have a World History?

Chapter One: Survival of the Peaceful: Prehistory to the First Civilizations.

Pre-Human Peace and Peacemaking.

Prehistoric Evolutions of Peace.

Peace, Peacemaking and the First Civilizations.

Chapter Two: Peace in the Ancient West: Egypt, Greece and Rome.

A Tale of Two Worlds: Peace and Peacemaking in Ancient Egypt.

Ancient Greece, Cradle of Western Peace and Peacemaking?

One Empire, One Peace: The Rise of Rome to the Pax Romana's Decline.

Chapter Three: Peace in the Ancient East: India, China and Japan.

The Many, the Few, the One: Peace and Peacemaking in Ancient India.

Harmonies and Antinomies of Ancient China.

Foreign Influences and Native Peace in Japanese History.

Chapter Four: Monotheistic Peaces: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Shalom: Peace in the Torah and its Times.

"Our" Universal Peace: From Christ to Constantine.

A Pillar of Peace: The Qur'an and its World.

Chapter Five: Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation Peaces.

A Tale of Two Cities: Medieval Peace and Peacemaking.

(Re)Births of Peace: Renaissance Revivals of and Departures from Traditions.

Reforming Christian Peace and Peacemaking.

Chapter Six: Peace, Peacemaking and the Ascent of Nation-States.

Intra-National Peace and Peacemaking.

Inter-National Peace and Peacemaking.

Peace and Peacemaking Despite Nation-States.

Chapter Seven: Colonial and Imperial Peace and Peacemaking.

Peaces of the World: Colonial Peace and Peacemaking.

The World in Peaces: Imperial Peace and Peacemaking.

Chapter Eight: Modern Economics of Peace and Peacemaking.

Capitalism: The Profitability of Peace and the Cost of War.

Who Owns Peace? Socialist Perspectives.

Chapter Nine: Peace in the Twentieth Century, Part One: 1900-1949.

The "War to End all Wars".

The Peace to End all Peace?

Chapter Ten: Peace in the Twentieth Century, Part Two: 1949-1989.

Cold War/Hot Peace.

One World, Many Peaces.

Chapter Eleven: The Presents of Peace.

Globalization: Peace at the End of History.

Threatening Opportunities: Terrorism, Technology, New Media and Peace.

Conclusion: The Pyramid of Peace: Past, Present and Future.

Selected Bibliography.

Works Cited.

Index.