Are Americans Becoming More Peaceful?

Are Americans Becoming More Peaceful?
Author: Paul Joseph
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2015-12-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317263618

"It's time that someone broke into the general gloom created by a war-loving administration and reminded us that we are a peace-loving people. Paul Joseph's book does just that, not with fantasy but with facts, showing how the public antipathy to war, suppressed too long by propaganda and deception, is coming to the surface, and offers hope." Howard Zinn "In this antidote to despair, Joseph shows how even the most sophisticated efforts of US political and military leaders to maintain public support for war are flawed and doomed to failure in the face of an increasingly skeptical public that is unwilling to accept the costs." William A. Gamson, Boston College "An original and thought-provoking perspective on one of the most important issues in American politics today." Michael Klare, Hampshire College Are Americans becoming more peaceful -- even after the 2004 elections and the seeming affirmation of the war in Iraq? This book looks at the meaning of peace in the face of war and offers an optimistic interpretation of the public's changing views. US citizens are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the costs of war that can be measured not just in dollars but in lives and international respect. Americans are becoming ever more resistant to government management of the "facts" surrounding war. In areas ranging from media and photojournalism to gender and casualties, Joseph exposes the reality of popular opposition to war.

The Better Angels of Our Nature

The Better Angels of Our Nature
Author: Steven Pinker
Publisher: Penguin Books
Total Pages: 834
Release: 2012-09-25
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0143122010

Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think this is the most violent age ever seen. Yet as bestselling author Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true.

Winning the Peace

Winning the Peace
Author: Nicolaus Mills
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1620458683

Politicians of every stripe frequently invoke the Marshall Plan in support of programs aimed at using American wealth to extend the nation's power and influence, solve intractable third-world economic problems, and combat world hunger and disease. Do any of these impassioned advocates understand why the Marshall Plan succeeded where so many subsequent aid plans have not? Historian Nicolaus Mills explores the Marshall Plan in all its dimensions to provide valuable lessons from the past about what America can and cannot do as a superpower.

What Every Person Should Know About War

What Every Person Should Know About War
Author: Chris Hedges
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2007-11-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1416583149

Acclaimed New York Times journalist and author Chris Hedges offers a critical -- and fascinating -- lesson in the dangerous realities of our age: a stark look at the effects of war on combatants. Utterly lacking in rhetoric or dogma, this manual relies instead on bare fact, frank description, and a spare question-and-answer format. Hedges allows U.S. military documentation of the brutalizing physical and psychological consequences of combat to speak for itself. Hedges poses dozens of questions that young soldiers might ask about combat, and then answers them by quoting from medical and psychological studies. • What are my chances of being wounded or killed if we go to war? • What does it feel like to get shot? • What do artillery shells do to you? • What is the most painful way to get wounded? • Will I be afraid? • What could happen to me in a nuclear attack? • What does it feel like to kill someone? • Can I withstand torture? • What are the long-term consequences of combat stress? • What will happen to my body after I die? This profound and devastating portrayal of the horrors to which we subject our armed forces stands as a ringing indictment of the glorification of war and the concealment of its barbarity.

Liberal Peace, Liberal War

Liberal Peace, Liberal War
Author: John Malloy Owen
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801486906

Liberal democracies very rarely fight wars against each other, even though they go to war just as often as other types of states do. John M. Owen IV attributes this peculiar restraint to a synergy between liberal ideology and the institutions that exist within these states. Liberal elites identify their interests with those of their counterparts in foreign states, Owen contends. Free discussion and regular competitive elections allow the agitations of the elites in liberal democracies to shape foreign policy, especially during crises, by influencing governmental decision makers. Several previous analysts have offered theories to explain liberal peace, but they have not examined the state. This book explores the chain of events linking peace with democracies. Owen emphasizes that peace is constructed by democratic ideas, and should be understood as a strong tendency built upon historically contingent perceptions and institutions. He tests his theory against ten cases drawn from over a century of U.S. diplomatic history, beginning with the Jay Treaty in 1794 and ending with the Spanish-American War in 1898. A world full of liberal democracies would not necessarily be peaceful. Were illiberal states to disappear, Owen asserts, liberal states would have difficulty identifying one another, and would have less reason to remain at peace.

Peace, War, and Liberty

Peace, War, and Liberty
Author: Christopher A. Preble
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781948647168

A historically-grounded examination of United States foreign policy that interrogates the ideological assumptions--whether explicit or tacit--that drive it.

The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth

The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth
Author: Michael Mandelbaum
Publisher:
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2019
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190935936

In The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth, Michael Mandelbaum examines the peaceful quarter century after the end of the Cold War. He describes how the period came about and why it ended, arguing that individual countries overturned peaceful, political, and military arrangements in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, thereby affecting the rest of the world. He also probes prospects for the revival of peace in the future and stresses the importance of democracy and civil liberties across borders.

War No More: Three Centuries of American Antiwar & Peace Writing (LOA #278)

War No More: Three Centuries of American Antiwar & Peace Writing (LOA #278)
Author: Lawrence Rosenwald
Publisher: Library of America
Total Pages: 1115
Release: 2016-06-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1598534742

A powerful collection of essential American antiwar writings, from the Revolution to the war on terror—featuring over 150 eloquent, provocative voices for peace Library of America presents an unprecedented tribute to a great American literary tradition. War has been a reality of the American experience from the founding of the nation and in every generation there have been dedicated and passionate visionaries who have responded to this reality with vital calls for peace. Spanning from the American Revolution to the war on terror, War No More gathers the essential texts of this uniquely American antiwar tradition in one volume for the first time. Classic expressions of conscience like Thoreau’s seminal “Civil Disobedience” lay the groundwork for such influential modern theorists of nonviolence as David Dellinger, Thomas Merton, and Barbara Deming. The long arc of the American antiwar movement is vividly traced in the urgent appeals of activists, made in soaring oratory and galvanizing song, and in dramatic dispatches from the front lines of antiwar protests. The voices of veterans, from the Civil War to the Iraq War, are prominently represented, as is the firsthand testimony of conscientious objectors. Contemporary writers—including Barbara Kingsolver, Jonathan Schell, Nicholson Baker, and Jane Hirshfield—demonstrate the ongoing richness of this literature in the years since September 11, 2001. Featuring more than 150 eloquent and provocative writers in all, War No More is a bible for activists, a go-to resource for scholars and students, and an inspiring and fascinating story for every reader interested in the crosscurrents of war and peace in American history. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

The Peace of Illusions

The Peace of Illusions
Author: Christopher Layne
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801474118

In a provocative book about American hegemony, Christopher Layne outlines his belief that U.S. foreign policy has been consistent in its aims for more than sixty years and that the current Bush administration clings to mid-twentieth-century tactics--to no good effect. What should the nation's grand strategy look like for the next several decades? The end of the cold war profoundly and permanently altered the international landscape, yet we have seen no parallel change in the aims and shape of U.S. foreign policy. The Peace of Illusions intervenes in the ongoing debate about American grand strategy and the costs and benefits of "American empire." Layne urges the desirability of a strategy he calls "offshore balancing": rather than wield power to dominate other states, the U.S. government should engage in diplomacy to balance large states against one another. The United States should intervene, Layne asserts, only when another state threatens, regionally or locally, to destroy the established balance. Drawing on extensive archival research, Layne traces the form and aims of U.S. foreign policy since 1940, examining alternatives foregone and identifying the strategic aims of different administrations. His offshore-balancing notion, if put into practice with the goal of extending the "American Century," would be a sea change in current strategy. Layne has much to say about present-day governmental decision making, which he examines from the perspectives of both international relations theory and American diplomatic history.