American Peace Writers, Editors, and Periodicals: A Dictionary

(Hardback)

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Description

This dictionary provides information on the writers, editors, and publications that have carried on a strong American tradition of peace advocacy that goes back to colonial times. The only work of its kind, the dictionary contains entries for some 400 individuals and more than 200 periodicals that represent viewpoints ranging from radical nonresistance, religious pacifism, and radical nonviolence, to selective anti-war positions and advocacy of world government. Professor Roberts' introduction presents an interpretive overview of peace advocacy and the various print media that became vehicles for it, including mainstream magazines and church or peace movement publications such as tracts, books, and pamphlets. Each entry summarizes the individual's literary contributions and lists known affiliation with periodicals, peace organizations and religious groups. The bibliographical section documents a representative selection of periodicals that have sought to promote peace at various times in America's history. The volume also includes information on peace organizations and the writers and editors affiliated with them. The product of meticulous research, this reference dictionary brings together a rich collection of material on the writers, social reformers, and publications that have shaped American pacifist tradition. Of interest for the fields of American social history, journalism and communication history, and religion as well as peace studies.

Reviews

To "shed light on the link between journalism, especially, and U.S. peace movements," Roberts's book contains information on some 400 individuals, many from the 19th and early 20th centuries, "who sought, especially through their writings, to awaken others to issues of war and peace in the hope of avoiding conflict." Some wrote for mainstream publications, but many wrote primarily for publications with limited readership--the press of the historic peace churches and of other alternative groups, especially peace advocacy groups. Information for each person includes brief biographical data, a selective listing of their publications that treat peace issues, and a selection (for some, quite extensive) of biographical sources, again stressing those that focus on the peace effort. These are especially useful since the items come from a wide variety of sources, many relatively obscure. Useful concluding sections of the book include a selective listing of American peace periodicals and a bibliography of sources for the study of American peace movements....The book provides much useful information not easily available elsewhere. Essential for libraries with an interest in the history of American peace movements and useful for most larger collections.-Choice
"To "shed light on the link between journalism, especially, and U.S. peace movements," Roberts's book contains information on some 400 individuals, many from the 19th and early 20th centuries, "who sought, especially through their writings, to awaken others to issues of war and peace in the hope of avoiding conflict." Some wrote for mainstream publications, but many wrote primarily for publications with limited readership--the press of the historic peace churches and of other alternative groups, especially peace advocacy groups. Information for each person includes brief biographical data, a selective listing of their publications that treat peace issues, and a selection (for some, quite extensive) of biographical sources, again stressing those that focus on the peace effort. These are especially useful since the items come from a wide variety of sources, many relatively obscure. Useful concluding sections of the book include a selective listing of American peace periodicals and a bibliography of sources for the study of American peace movements....The book provides much useful information not easily available elsewhere. Essential for libraries with an interest in the history of American peace movements and useful for most larger collections."-Choice

Author Bio

NANCY L. ROBERTS is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker, together with journal articles on various topics in journalism history and peace studies.