Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace Leaders

(Hardback)

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This important reference tool surveys the multifaceted field of peace activism from 1800 to 1980. The dictionary defines the parameters of peace advocacy, surveys the different approaches taken in antiwar efforts, and provides information on many individuals who have either contributed to organized peace efforts or who have questioned war and organized violence. More than 250 authors from 15 nations have written 750 biographical entries about public advocates of peace; antiwar activists; leaders in organizations devoted to world peace; those who have worked to prevent armed conflicts; and writers, artists, and many others who have played major roles in the cause of peace. Although many of the subjects come from the United States and Europe, important subjects from Canada, Latin America, Africa, East Asia, and South Asia are also represented. Besides providing basic biographical information, each entry concentrates on the subject's work, ideas, and activity as a peace leader and also contains a short bibliography of works about the subject, works by the subject, and manuscript materials if available. Carefully indexed and cross-referenced, the volume contains an introductory overview of nineteenth- and twentieth-century peace efforts, gives a selective chronology of peace movements, and provides an appendix listing the peace leaders by country. No other volume provides such a comprehensive survey of peace leaders throughout the world as this one. The Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace Leaders will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable research and reference tool for scholars and students of international relations, international law, and political philosophy.

Reviews

Covering the period 1800-1980, this is a remarkable compilation of 750 biographical essays on the world's most prominent peace advocates and activists. Commencing with an excellent introduction by Josephson, the volume includes contributions from 250 authors from 15 countries. Its subjects range from such famous personalities as Jane Addams and Mohandas Gandhi to people of lesser renown. Most come from the United States and Western Europe, but a significant number represent Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Comprehensive and cross-referenced, this work stands with a companion volume--Warren Kuehl's Biographical Dictionary of Internationalists (Greenwood Press, 1983)--to provide the best brief introduction to the modern global peace tradition. It is at once an invaluable reference tool and a splendid point of entry into the otherwise lost world of modern peace heroes.-Library Journal
Seven hundred fifty ... individuals who either contributed to the organized peace effort or who influenced others to question wars and organized violence... are the subjects of these contributed essays supplemented by bibliographies. All biographees lived between 1800 and 1980. There are 41 countries represented in the work; an appendix identifies their diversity, ranging from the US, Britain, and Germany to the Central African Republic, China, and Russia. Many individuals are well know but others are not easily identified. Warren Kuehl's Biographical Dictionary of Internationalists (1983) complements this volume; cross-referencing between the two has been provided.... An informative essay on the peace movement and a chronology of the movement add value. The more than 250 contributors are identified, and there is a helpful index. This information-filled book is not, as so many collections are, a regurgitation of information in a different form. Recommended.-Choice
"Covering the period 1800-1980, this is a remarkable compilation of 750 biographical essays on the world's most prominent peace advocates and activists. Commencing with an excellent introduction by Josephson, the volume includes contributions from 250 authors from 15 countries. Its subjects range from such famous personalities as Jane Addams and Mohandas Gandhi to people of lesser renown. Most come from the United States and Western Europe, but a significant number represent Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Comprehensive and cross-referenced, this work stands with a companion volume--Warren Kuehl's Biographical Dictionary of Internationalists (Greenwood Press, 1983)--to provide the best brief introduction to the modern global peace tradition. It is at once an invaluable reference tool and a splendid point of entry into the otherwise lost world of modern peace heroes."-Library Journal
"Seven hundred fifty ... individuals who either contributed to the organized peace effort or who influenced others to question wars and organized violence... are the subjects of these contributed essays supplemented by bibliographies. All biographees lived between 1800 and 1980. There are 41 countries represented in the work; an appendix identifies their diversity, ranging from the US, Britain, and Germany to the Central African Republic, China, and Russia. Many individuals are well know but others are not easily identified. Warren Kuehl's Biographical Dictionary of Internationalists (1983) complements this volume; cross-referencing between the two has been provided.... An informative essay on the peace movement and a chronology of the movement add value. The more than 250 contributors are identified, and there is a helpful index. This information-filled book is not, as so many collections are, a regurgitation of information in a different form. Recommended."-Choice

Author Bio

HAROLD JOSEPHSON is Professor of History and Director of the Center for International Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His earlier works include James T. Shotwell and the Rise of Internationalism in America and articles in Diplomatic History, The Historian, and American Heritage.