Peace and War: Non-fiction Books

In this vivid analysis, Andrew J. Bacevich presents the origins of this consensus, forged at a moment when American power was at its height. He exposes the preconceptions, biases, and habits that underlie our pervasive faith in military might, especially the notion that overwhelming superiority will oblige others to accommodate America's needs and desires--whether for cheap oil, cheap credit, or cheap consumer goods. From Publisher Also, see his many other books in our collection.

The term "blowback," invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended results of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. From Publisher . Also see the other 2 books in this trilogy, The Sorrows of Empire and Nemesis.

Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies—corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting basic human desires. From Publisher

The book focuses on the impact of war on women and girls, and the potential for women as peacemakers. The text addresses major policy issues facing organizations involved in humanitarian assistance, and highlights actions to address and resolve armed violence and conflict. From Publisher

James Der Derian takes the reader from a family history of war and genocide to new virtual battlespaces in the Mojave Desert, Silicon Valley, Hollywood and American universities. He tracks the convergence of cyborg technologies, video games, media spectacles, war movies, and do-good ideologies that produced a chimera of high-tech, low-risk ‘virtuous wars’. From Publisher

What draws our species to war and even makes us see it as a kind of sacred undertaking? Blood Rites takes us on an original journey from the elaborate human sacrifices of the ancient world to the carnage and holocaust of twentieth-century "total war." From Publisher

Twenty-three years in the making, Rising Up and Rising Down …is a rich amalgam of historical analysis, contemporary case studies, anecdotes, essays, theory, charts, graphs, photographs and drawings. Convinced that there is "a finite number of excuses" for violence and that some excuses "are more valid than others," Vollmann spent two decades consulting hundreds of sources, scrutinizing the thinking of philosophers, theologians, tyrants, warlords, military strategists, activists and pacifists. From Publisher

Howard Zinn on War is a collection of twenty-six short writings chosen by the author to represent his thinking on a subject that concerned and fascinated him throughout his career. He reflects on the wars against Iraq, the war in Kosovo, the Vietnam War, World War II, and on the meaning of war generally in a world of nations that can’t seem to stop destroying each other. From Publisher

James Hillman, one of today’s most respected psychologists, undertakes a groundbreaking examination of the essence of war, its psychological origins and inhuman behaviors. Utilizing reports from many fronts and times, letters from combatants, analyses by military authorities, classic myths, and writings from great thinkers, including Twain, Tolstoy, Kant, Arendt, Foucault, and Levinas, Hillman’s broad sweep and detailed research bring a fundamentally new understanding to humanity’s simultaneous attraction and aversion to war. From Publisher

When "War is a Racket" was first published in 1935, Butler was the most decorated American soldier of his time. He had lead several successful military operations in the Caribbean and in Central America, as well as in Europe during the First World War. Despite his success and his heroic status, however, Butler came away from these experiences with a deeply troubled view of both the purpose and the results of warfare. From Publisher

Mark Mazzetti recounts the untold story of America’s shadow war, one that blurred the lines between soldiers and spies and lowered the bar for waging war across the globe. This new approach—carried out by CIA operatives and special operations troops—has been embraced by Washington as a lower-risk and cost effective alternative to the messy wars of occupation, but as Mazzetti demonstrates in this revealing book, the way of the knife has created enemies just as it has killed them. From Publisher

War Is A Lie is a thorough refutation of every major argument used to justify wars, drawing on evidence from numerous past wars, with a focus on those that have been most widely defended as just and good. From Publisher

This poignant collection, compiled from Kingston's healing workshops, contains the distilled wisdom of survivors of five wars, including combatants, war widows, spouses, children, conscientious objectors, and veterans of domestic abuse. Vetrans of War, Vetrans of Peace includes accounts from people that grew up in military families, served as medics in the thick of war, or came home to homelessness. From Publisher

Recognized as the ultimate text for those working with Vietnam veterans, the book's insights have had enormous influence among psychologists and psychiatrists all over the world. Lifton's new preface connects the experience of Vietnam veterans with that of veterans of the war in Iraq. From Publisher

It was the book that shattered America's deliberate indifference to the fate of the men it sent to fight in the jungles of Vietnam, and in the years since it was first published it has become a basic text on that war. From Publisher

Demon Camp is the riveting true story of a veteran with PTSD and an exploration of the battles soldiers face after the war is over. Percy's riveting account forces us to gaze upon the true human consequences of the War on Terror. From Publisher

The Invisible Front is the story of how one family tries to set aside their grief and find purpose in almost unimaginable loss. The Grahams work to change how the Army treats those with PTSD and to erase the stigma that prevents suicidal troops from getting the help they need before making the darkest of choices. From Publisher

Leah Wizelman relates the true stories of service members from different service branches and ranks from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Germany, who were participants in various wars (Vietnam, Gulf war, Iraq, Afghanistan, Grenada) and peace missions (Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, Cambodia, Somalia, Cyprus, Haiti). They talk openly about their lives after trauma and share their fates with the reader. Spouses of affected military members also tell their stories. From Publisher

In a compelling narrative, Marlantes weaves riveting accounts of his combat experiences with thoughtful analysis, self-examination, and his readings—from Homer to the Mahabharata to Jung. He makes it clear just how poorly prepared our nineteen-year-old warriors—mainly men but increasingly women—are for the psychological and spiritual aspects of their journey. From Publisher

The Untold War draws on revealing interviews with servicemen and -women to offer keen psychological and philosophical insights into the experience of being a soldier. From Publisher

Using firsthand accounts, the authors offer insights into the realities of PTSD and combat trauma, and how symptoms may pervade even the most mundane of daily activities and cause sufferers to experience withdrawal, depression, violence, rage, and even suicide. In a new epilogue, the authors offer data about treatments and resources that both PTSD sufferers and their families and friends will value. From Publisher

Jean Scandlyn and Sarah Hautzinger argue for a new approach to combat stress and trauma, seeing them not just as individual medical pathologies but as fundamentally collective cultural phenomena. From Publisher

Hartsough's stories inspire, educate, and encourage readers to find ways to work for a more just and peaceful world. Inspired by the examples of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Hartsough has spent his life experimenting with the power of active nonviolence. From Publisher

IRENE GUT WAS just 17 in 1939, when the Germans and Russians devoured her native Poland. Just a girl, really. But a girl who saw evil and chose to defy it. From Publisher

The Need for Roots’… purpose was to help rebuild France after the war…She wrote that one of the basic obligations we have as human beings is to not let another suffer from hunger. Equally as important, however, is our duty towards our community: we may have declared various human rights, but we have overlooked the obligations and this has left us self-righteous and rootless. She could easily have been issuing a direct warning to us today, the citizens of Century 21. From Publisher

Read here how Thich Nhat Hanh and his fellow monks worked to organize the Buddhist communities to unite in a peace process and risked their lives to help their neighbors living under bombardment during the Viet Nam war.

Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. From Publisher

An irreplaceable account of the fight for a political course able to organize working people, GIs, and youth and help lead growing world opposition to the Vietnam War. It contains two 16-page photo sections. From Publisher

This book is a distillation of Gandhi's main themes that he lived through his lifetime.

The Power of Nonviolence, the first anthology of alternatives to war with a historical perspective, with an introduction by Howard Zinn about September 11 and the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks, presents the most salient and persuasive arguments for peace in the last 2,500 years of human history. Arranged chronologically, covering the major conflagrations in the world, From Publisher

Based on 20 years of university lectures and proposals to the United Nations, this book addresses the issue of peace from the Buddhist perspective of compassion, interconnectedness of all life, and absolute respect for human life. Informed by the teachings of Nichiren, the 13th-century Japanese Buddhist teacher and reformer, this book considers peace from various angles, including economics, the environment, disarmament, religion, and culture. From Publisher - Find more books on peace by Daisaku Ikeda in the Founder's Collection on the 1rst floor of the library.

Vandana Shiva … explores the issues she helped bring to international attention—genetic food engineering, culture theft, and natural resource privatization—uncovering their links to the rising tide of fundamentalism, violence against women, and planetary death. From Publisher

Sociologist Elise Boulding offers a collection of essays that emphasize her study of civil society during the second half of the 20th century. She revisits her theme of connection among family, community and government, offering perspectives and advice on how to fuel the process of peace. From Publisher

The authors share their vast knowledge and analysis of 21st-century world events—including new coverage on timely topics such as the scope and history of peace and conflict studies, the nature of violence and nonviolence, cutting-edge military technologies, the rise of the "BRIC" countries, and the US and Global Peace Indexes. With an encyclopedic scope, this introductory book chronicles a plethora of important global topics from pre-history to the present. From Publisher

Johan Galtung, one of the founders of modern peace studies, provides a wide-ranging panorama of the ideas, theories and assumptions on which the study of peace is based. From Publisher

In Waging Nonviolent Struggle, Dr. Sharp documents 23 significant—and often successful—20th century nonviolent struggles in a range of cultural and political contexts, and reaffirms nonviolent action as a realistic and powerful alternative to both passivity and violence. From Publisher

The main focus of this book is put on topical articles by Scientific and Peace Nobel Prize laureates, prominent scientists and those committed to peace issues and justice, as well as citizens engagement for peace. From Publisher

Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, they originally and systematically compare violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and that it is necessary to achieve certain political goals. From Publisher

As a high-school, college, and law school teacher, he has taught the principles and history of nonviolence to more than three thousand students in the past decade. From Publisher

This profound guidebook reframes and expands the mission of building a global culture of peace. Going far beyond conventional techniques of conflict resolution, James O'Dea provides a holistic approach to peace work, covering its oft-ignored cultural, spiritual, and scientific dimensions while providing guidance suitable even for those who have never considered themselves peacebuilders. From Publishers

This innovative book brings together Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, Islamic, indigenous, and secular humanist perspectives on their individual peace agendas, offering concrete policy proposals to meet the challenges of the 21st century. From Publisher

The author proposes a three-pronged strategy to achieve success―preventing conflict by addressing human security through human development, pursuing a policy of atonement and forgiveness, and eliminating trust deficit between the State and the marginalized―the three pillars of Operation Sadhbhavna. From Publisher

Featuring both classic and contemporary work, it enables students to read highly influential articles while also introducing them to the most current perspectives in the field. Timeless classics from Leo Tolstoy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Henry David Thoreau are included alongside contemporary pieces. From Publisher

A critical and piercing analysis of the short-comings of conventional approaches to conflict resolution, realpolitik and worsening dynamics of global violence which, if not resolved, threaten even more catastrophic destruction in the future. The book maps the conditions and path to sustainable peace, and the challenge for peace by peaceful means. From Publisher

"Reardon's book examines those ingredients necessary to reconstruct a society free of the competitive, violent, and war-centered methods that define today's reality, replacing it with one exhibiting the egalitarian, holistic, and cooperative patterns rooted in women's culture and experience but applicable to all of society, women and men alike." -- Diana Sheridan, Associate Director, Center for the Study of Women in Society, University of Oregon