Book reviews

Book review: Encyclopedia of peace education

“Encyclopedia of Peace Education,” edited by Monisha Bajaj, is a volume in the Information Age Press series: Peace Education, edited by Laura Finley & Robin Cooper. This review, authored by Alexander Cromwell, is one in a series co-published by the Global Campaign for Peace Education and In Factis Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice toward promoting peace education scholarship.

Book Review – Peace and conflict studies research: a qualitative perspective

“Peace and conflict studies research: a qualitative perspective,” edited by Robin Cooper and Laura Finley, is a volume in the Information Age Press series: Peace Education, edited by Laura Finley & Robin Cooper. This review, authored by Mike Klein, is one in a series co-published by the Global Campaign for Peace Education and In Factis Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice toward promoting peace education scholarship.

Book Review – Peace Jobs: a student’s guide to starting a career working for peace

“Peace jobs: a student’s guide to starting a career working for peace” by David J. Smith, is a volume in the Information Age Press series: Peace Education, edited by Laura Finley & Robin Cooper. This review, authored by Janet Gray, is one in a series co-published by the Global Campaign for Peace Education and In Factis Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice toward promoting peace education scholarship.

Book Review: Peace education from the grassroots

“Peace education from the grassroots,” edited by Ian M. Harris, is a volume in the Information Age Press series: Peace Education, edited by Laura Finley & Robin Cooper. This review, authored by Mallory Servais, is one in a series co-published by the Global Campaign for Peace Education and In Factis Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice toward promoting peace education scholarship.

Book Review – Building a peaceful society: creative integration of peace education

“Building a peaceful society: creative integration of peace education” by Laura L. Finley, is a volume in the Information Age Press series: Peace Education, edited by Laura Finley & Robin Cooper. This review, authored by Christie Billups, is one in a series co-published by the Global Campaign for Peace Education and In Factis Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice toward promoting peace education scholarship.

Book Review: The language of peace, communicating to create harmony

“The language of peace, communicating to create harmony,” edited by Rebecca L. Oxford, is a volume in the Information Age Press series: Peace Education, edited by Laura Finley & Robin Cooper. This review, authored by Mumbua Simon, is one in a series co-published by the Global Campaign for Peace Education and In Factis Pax: Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice toward promoting peace education scholarship.

“The Armor of Light”: a Catalyst for Peacelearning

Betty Reardon reviews Abigail Disney’s newest documentary “The Armor of Light.” Brilliantly executed, ethically instructive and politically relevant, the film is an important contribution to the current societal conversation debating the American gun culture, its daily shootings, and the growing conflation of weapons with personal and family security that characterize it. The regularity of gun deaths that takes lives of all ages and races, but disproportionately of young black men makes the persistence of racism imbedded in our social order readily evident. Less noted, brought to public attention only in sensational cases or crimes that bring the active attention of feminists and women’s rights activists, are the multiple incidents of domestic violence escalating beyond physical abuse to murder, when the abuser is in possession of a firearm. Children bringing loaded guns to school or dying by accidental shootings, usually in their own homes is more frequently reported. Easy access to guns also increases the possibility that death or serious injury in the commission of crimes that might not otherwise have had lethal consequences.

Clearly the prevalence of handguns and private possession of assault weapons poses a problem of such proportions as to be a subject of significant attention on the teaching agendas of all peace educators. Disney’s film is a powerful pedagogic tool for addressing this agenda item. It vividly illustrates the dire national need to confront the problem of weapons in American society and documents the struggle to fulfill that need by three individuals of diverse backgrounds who share strongly held beliefs in the value of human life.

Turning Trauma into the Abolition of War

Chappell’s latest book, The Cosmic Ocean: New Answers to Big Questions, is the fifth in a projected seven-part series. Like a sculptor pounding out variations on a theme, Chappell each year produces a newer, thicker, wiser, and more illuminating take on the questions that tear at his heart: How can we be so kind and cause such suffering? How can we fail to care about others just like ourselves? What sort of change is possible and how can it be brought about?

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