___Book Review__________________________________________________________________________________

Book Title: Peace - A World History

Publisher: Polity Press( 2009)

Author: Antony Adolf

Reviewer: Kevin Coffey

'Peace - A World History' is essential reading for anyone concerned with the promotion of peace, the study of peace, and the making of peace. Anthony Adolf’s writing is articulate and accomplished. The very reading of the book is satisfying in itself. The content is presented authoritatively and thoroughly. The writer knows his stuff!

Antony Adolf concludes his weighty introduction with the statement: “World peace cannot be this book’s subject, despite the best of plans to present it in this way, because it has not yet been actualized – it is, however, the objective.”

The span of the work covers an examination of peace, peacemaking, and peacekeeping in the contexts of prehistory, the Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilisations, those of India, China and Japan, - then the three monotheisms of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Then follows the three historical periods of Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, through to the ascent of the Nation States, Colonialism and Imperialism to bring us into the modern era via Mercantilism, Capitalism and Socialism. Thus Antony Adolf’s work prepares us for entry into the 20th Century and beyond – into our wars and our peaces.

The strength of the book is its span of analysis and its detail. I was struck by one apparent omission – virtually no commentary or analysis concerning the Second World War! The Cold War era is well covered. I was also struck by a feeling that there is much lurking beneath the surface of world affairs and its players. The book certainly makes the surface layer clear by presenting its symptomatology, but what of the underlying strata? Others will need to grasp the clearly exposed symptoms and penetrate through to the underlying morphology and meanings. Antony Adolf has done a superb job of describing the symptoms.

By way of conclusion, the author introduces the Pyramid of Peace – an adaptation of Maslow’s pyramid of human needs and motives. The principles comprising the pyramid are elaborated clearly from the base to the apex. I find the adaptation useful but not brilliant. Perhaps naively, I would have hoped in conclusion to see a penetration into, and elaboration of, how peace in the end can arise through individuals – through our attitudes and deeds. For it is the individual, each and every one of us, that has the power and freedom to choose and promote that which unifies over what separates.  Forgiveness and sharing can spring from individual attitudes and deeds, and thus inspire groups, and in the end, nations. Mandela is a striking and powerful example, yet in ‘Peace – A World History’ there is barely a glimmer of this aspect of what happened in South Africa and the part played by Nelson Mandela ( and F W de Klerk ).

Antony Adolf has performed a great service in bringing forth such a history of world peace. But what will we do with it? As a peace studies text it is clearly a front-runner for recommended reading or an essential course book. As an historical overview of this aspect of human history, it should not gather too much dust on the shelves of politicians and academics. For the general reader, it is a very good starting point from which to address the question: What will I do to promote peace, and how will I do that?

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