Although his work and life have been well documented, John Dewey's role in the postwar peace movement has been generally overlooked. In America's Peace-Minded Educator, the authors take a close look at John Dewey's many undertakings on behalf of world peace.
Books Not Bombs: Teaching Peace Since the Dawn of the Republic is an important work relevant to peace scholars, practitioners, and students. This incisive book offers an exciting and comprehensive historical analysis of the origins and development of peace education from the creation of the New Republic at the end of the Eighteenth Century to the beginning of the Twenty-First century. It examines efforts to educate the American populace, young and old, both inside the classroom and outside in terms of peace societies and endowed organizations. While many in the field of peace education focus their energies on conflict resolution and teaching peace pedagogically, Books Not Bombs approaches the topic from an entirely new perspective. It undertakes a thorough examination of the evolution of peace ideology within the context of opposing war and promoting social justice inside and outside schoolhouse gates. It seeks to offer explanations on how attempts to prevent violence have been communicated through the lens of history.
The Pentagon currently spends around $1.4 billion per year on recruiting and hundreds of millions annually on other marketing initiatives intended to convince the public to enlist—costly efforts to ensure a steady stream of new soldiers. The most important part of this effort is the Pentagon’s decades-long drive to win over the teenage mind by establishing a beachhead in American high schools and colleges. Breaking the War Habit provides an original consideration of the militarization of schools in the United States and explores the prolonged battle to prevent the military from infiltrating and influencing public education. Focused on the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) in high schools and the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) in higher education, the authors expose the pervasive influence and economic leverage bestowed on the military as it recruits children and youth. Breaking the War Habit highlights those who have resisted the privileged status of the military and successfully challenged its position on campuses across the country. A “scrappy band of activists,” the Committee on Militarism in Education (CME) initiated this work following World War I, publicizing the rise of school militarism and its implications. For two decades, CME’s activism shaped public debate over the meaning of militarism in U.S. society and education settings, resulting in numerous victories against ROTC and JROTC programs. The authors also explore how, since the mid-1970s, military “counter-recruiters” have contested military recruiters’ largely unchecked access to high school students, raising awareness of a “school-to-military pipeline” that concentrates recruitment in urban (predominantly Black and low-income) regions.
Although his work and life have been well documented, John Dewey's role in the postwar peace movement has been generally overlooked. In America's Peace-Minded Educator, the authors take a close look at John Dewey's many undertakings on behalf of world peace.
For the People is a historical docutext that examines the evolution of the struggle for peace and justice in America's past, from pre-colonial times to the present. Each chapter begins with a brief historical introduction followed by a series of primary source documents and questions to encourage student comprehension. Sample photographs illustrate the range of peace activists' concerns, while the list of references, focused on the most important works in the field of U.S. peace history, points students toward opportunities for further research. This is the only historical docutext specifically devoted to peace issues. The interpretive analysis of American peace history provided by the editors makes this more than just an anthology of collected documents. As such, the docutext is an extension and a complement to the editors' recently published popular scholarly survey, A History of the American Peace Movement from Colonial Times to the Present. A central idea in this work is that peace is more than just the absence of war. The documents, and the analysis that accompanies them, offer fresh perspectives on the ways in which the peace movement became transformed from one simply opposing war to one proclaiming the importance of social, political, and economic equality. The editors' premise is that the peace movement historically has been a collective attempt by numerous well-intentioned people to improve American society. The book illuminates the ways in which peace activists were often connected to larger reform movements in American history, including those that fought for the rights of working people, for women's equality, and for the abolition of slavery, to name just a few. With a focus on those who spoke out for peace, this docutext is designed to call to students' attention one of the least discussed classroom subjects in American education today. Students in secondary school Social Studies and American history classes as well as those taking college level courses in U.S. history, American Studies, or Peace Studies will find this work an excellent supplementary reader.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.