“Peace is not the absence of war but the absence of fear”: International Day of Peace 2022
The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. Two decades later, in 2001, the General Assembly unanimously voted to designate the Day as a period of non-violence and cease-fire.
I'm a Quaker (The Religious Society of Friends) and central to our faith is the The Peace Testimony. I was fortunate as a member of the Toronto Monthly Meeting to know many "weighty Friends" who were in the peace movement, including Prof Peter Brock, Prof Ursula Franklin and Nancy Pocock.
So to acknowledge this important concept of peace, I thought I would bring together a list of titles on pacifism, peace making, conscientious objectors and anti war books.
Worth Fighting for: Canada's Tradition of War Resistance from 1812 to the War on Terror
"Canada also has a long, rich, and important historical tradition of resistance to both war and militarization. This collection brings together the work of sixteen scholars on the history of war resistance."
See also:
- Witness Against War: Pacifism in Canada, 1900-1945
- History of the Canadian Peace Movement Until 1969
- The Common Sky: Canadian Writers Against the War
To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 by Adam Hochschild
"World War I stands as one of history's most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. In his riveting narrative, Hochschild brings it to life as never before while focusing on the long-ignored moral drama of the war's critics, alongside its generals and heroes."
See also:
Crisis of Conscience: Conscientious Objection in Canada During the First World War by Amy Shaw
"The first and only book about the Canadian pacifists who refused to fight in the Great War. The experience of these conscientious objectors offers insight into evolving attitudes about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship during a key period of Canadian nation building."
See also:
- Polarity, Patriotism, and Dissent in Great War Canada, 1914-1919
- War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918
- Antiwar Dissent and Peace Activism in World War I America: A Documentary Reader
Battles of Conscience: British Pacifists and the Second World War by Tobias Kelly
"However, the war looks very different when seen through the eyes of the 60,000 conscientious objectors who refused to take up arms and whose stories, unlike those of the First World War, have been almost entirely forgotten."
Hell No: The Forgotten Power of the Vietnam Peace Movement by Tom Hayden
"Hell no' was the battle cry of the largest peace movement in American history–the effort to end the Vietnam War, which included thousands of veterans. The movement was divided among radicals, revolutionaries, sectarians, moderates, and militants, which legions of paid FBI informants and government provocateurs tried to destroy. Despite these obstacles millions marched, resisted the draft on campuses, and forced two sitting presidents from office."
See also:
Hit and Stay : A History of Faith and Resistance: e-video
"A documentary about priests and nuns who protested the Vietnam War by breaking into draft boards, destroying draft records, and then waiting around to be arrested. Their actions inspired a movement, which shaped the anti-war movement and helped bring an end to the draft."
Sting Like a Bee : Muhammad Ali vs. the United States of America, 1966-1971 by Leigh Montville
"Muhammad Ali, in the late 1960s, was young, successful, brash, and hugely admired–but with some reservations. He was bombastic and cocky in a way that captured the imagination of America, but also drew its detractors. He was a bold young African American in an era when few people were as outspoken. He renounced his name–Cassius Clay–as being his 'slave name, ' and joined the Nation of Islam, renaming himself Muhammad Ali. And finally in 1966, after being drafted, he refused to join the military for religious and conscientious reasons, triggering a fight that was larger than any of his bouts in the ring"
Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada by Mark Satin
"Originally published in 1968 by House of Anansi Press, the Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada was a handbook for young Americans who were thinking about immigrating to Canada as an alternative to serving as draftees in the Vietnam War. In celebration of Anansi's 50th anniversary, the Manual is now available in print for the first time since 1971, and features a new introduction by Mark Satin himself."
Building Sanctuary: The Movement to Support Vietnam War Resisters in Canada, 1965-73 by Jessica Squires
"Between 1965 and 1973, a small but active cadre of Canadian antiwar groups and peace activists launched campaigns to open the border. Jessica Squires tells their story, often in their own words, bringing to light how these men and women shaped Canadian immigration policy, Canadian identity"
See also:
- Northern Passage : American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada
- All American Boys: Draft Dodgers in Canada from the Vietnam War
Let them stay : U.S. war resisters in Canada, 2004-2016 edited by Sarah Hipworth and Luke Stewart
"Presents the history of U.S. soldiers, who came to Canada, seeking sanctuary after saying "no" to the war on Iraq."
The Ursula Franklin Reader Pacifism as a Map
"Feminist, educator, Quaker, and physicist, Ursula Franklin has long been considered one of Canada's foremost advocates and practitioners of pacifism."
See also:
Scarce Heard Amid the Guns: An Inside Look at Canadian Peacekeeping
"The Canadian contribution to peacekeeping is enormous but unsnared in a lethal mythology that has seen it abandoned to popular folklore. Scarce Heard Amid the Guns tears the curtain of myth away, providing a rare, visceral inner perspective of the various Canadian missions."
see also:
- Canada and the United Nations: Legacies, Limits, Prospects
- Peacekeeping and the International System
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