Editors' IntroductionThis issue of Social Alternatives is devoted to ending war and other related forms of violence and to building structures and values that will strengthen peace. Its major theme embraces the notion of declaring Day, April 25th, 2015, the beginning of a 'Year of Peace'. The idea took root in the Day address delivered in 2014 by the late Governor Peter Underwood of Tasmania. His message was that 'until we find the truth (of what causes wars), we cannot begin to pay proper homage and respect to those who fought in that terrible conflict 100 years ago and to the many others who have subsequently fought in other wars.' Instead of glorifying war with the deeds of our soldiers 'enthusiastically and unflinchingly carrying the torch of freedom in the face of murderous enemy fire', we can best honour their sacrifices by embarking on studies to eliminate the custom of war and its practice of killing and being killed.The full address of the Governor, delivered from Hobart's cenotaph at last year's Day ceremony, appears as this issue's first article. It inspired a group of five former academics who have continued our long commitment to peace studies and action to respond to the Governor's call to be among those offering more than just 'remembrance and honour'. Two of us opted to focus on peace action at the community level. The other three turned to the Social Alternatives Collective with a proposal to edit a special peace issue in accordance with the spirit and process set out in the Governor's speech. Our proposal was supported enthusiastically by the Collective, so we contacted the Governor for his endorsement to publish the entire speech. He pointed out that his permission was not required since the address had become part of the public domain but he considered it thoughtful to have been asked. He said he was unfamiliar with the journal, so we told him it is widely available in university and government libraries. In a second exchange he indicated that he had found a copy and would now like to take out a yearly subscription.Sadly, that was the last time we had the opportunity to talk with this delightful and very approachable man. He died suddenly on 7 July, a month after surgery to remove a tumour. He had wanted the centenary year of the beginning of World War I in August 2014 to coincide with the launching of a Year of Peace. However, Social Alternatives was committed for the next two issues, so we prepared for a late January 2015 publication date. Supporting Governor Underwood's proposal for the Year of Peace we focused the publication of this issue towards the centenary of the landing at Cove on 25th April, 1915.Governor Underwood called for the establishment of an ANZAC 'centre for the study of peace, conflict and war'. Along the same lines, he declared that 'some of the millions of dollars that will be spent on the Anzac Festival should be diverted to support for the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies'. He clearly recognised the value of strengthening existing peace centres, establishing new ones, and introducing peace studies in universities and schools as well as peace methods in the communities. These comprise long-term and effective ways to create the peaceful society he envisaged as the true outcome of national sacrifice in World War I and subsequent wars.There are also a host of critical immediate issues to be dealt with. These include the impacts of fundamentalist-inspired terrorist acts such as the lone-wolf murders in Sydney's Martin Place on 16 December, 2014, the expansion of the arms trade, the rising of the mean world temperature toward the critical tipping point of a 3.6 degrees increase and the ongoing violence and discrimination against women around the world. It is sobering to bear in mind the imminent dangers of nuclear war that can end all human hopes of survival. The symbolic indicator of the Doomsday Clock was set by the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on 14 January, 2014 at three minutes to midnight suggesting, according to the Board, that 'the risk of civilisation-threatening technological catastrophe remains high'. …
Journal Article Robert L. Messer. The End of an Alliance; James F. Byrnes, Roosevelt, Truman, and the Origins of the Cold War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1982. Pp. viii, 292. $19.95 Get access Messer Robert L.. The End of an Alliance; James F. Byrnes, Roosevelt, Truman, and the Origins of the Cold War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1982. Pp. viii, 292. $19.95. Lawrence S. Wittner Lawrence S. Wittner State University of New York, Albany Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 88, Issue 1, February 1983, Pages 212–213, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/88.1.212 Published: 01 February 1983
African Americans Against the Bomb—a well-written, well-researched historical study by Vincent Intondi—explores an important subject: African-American resistance to nuclear weapons.Thanks to schola...
Confronting the Bomb tells the dramatic, inspiring story of how citizen activism helped curb the nuclear arms race and prevent nuclear war. This abbreviated version of Lawrence Wittner's award-winning trilogy, The Struggle Against the Bomb, shows how a worldwide, grassroots campaign-the largest social movement of modern times-challenged the nuclear priorities of the great powers and, ultimately, thwarted their nuclear ambitions. Based on massive research in the files of peace and disarmament organizations and in formerly top secret government records, extensive interviews with antinuclear activists and government officials, and memoirs and other published materials, Confronting the Bomb opens a unique window on one of the most important issues of the modern era: survival in the nuclear age. It covers the entire period of significant opposition to the bomb, from the final stages of the Second World War up to the present. Along the way, it provides fascinating glimpses of the interaction of key nuclear disarmament activists and policymakers, including Albert Einstein, Harry Truman, Albert Schweitzer, Norman Cousins, Nikita Khrushchev, Bertrand Russell, Andrei Sakharov, Linus Pauling, Dwight Eisenhower, Harold Macmillan, John F. Kennedy, Randy Forsberg, Mikhail Gorbachev, Helen Caldicott, E.P. Thompson, and Ronald Reagan. Overall, however, it is a story of popular mobilization and its effectiveness.
In this introduction to the special issue on peace history, the emergence of this sub-field of both history and peace research is briefly described, and some of its organizational aspects as well as scholarly achievements are highlighted. The increasing breadth of peace history since its establishment in the 1960s is illustrated, particularly through its focus on grass-roots peacemaking and attention to topics that in the past have been frequently marginalized by mainstream history (with its concentration on traditional diplomatic history and elite foreign policy decisionmaking). The growth of civil society and citizens' increasing involvement in issues concerning war and peace are providing a rich source for historical analysis. A summary is included of the six case studies which follow. They deal with such subjects as women's anti-war campaigning in the 1930s, conscientious objectors in the 1940s and the anti-nuclear movements of the 1970s and 1980s. Spanning the 20th century and drawn from three continents, these studies show the potential as well as the difficulties inherent in popular peace advocacy.
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