Read complete books and articles on: Pacifism

Pacifism - advocacy of opposition to war through individual or collective action against militarism. Although complete, enduring peace is the goal of all pacifism, the methods of achieving it differ. Some groups oppose international war but advocate revolution for suppressed nationalities; others are willing to support defensive but not offensive war; others oppose all war, but believe in

Motivations

One of the strongest motivations in the promotion of peace has been religion, the objection to war being, in general, based on the belief that the willful taking of human life is wrong. The Eastern religions, especially Buddhism, decry war and advocate nonresistance. There has also been a strong pacifistic element in Judaism and Christianity. The Sermon on the Mount, in particular, contains a strong exhortation to peace. The church generally voiced opposition to war as such (with the notable exception of the Crusades); in the Middle Ages the truce of God was the outcome of ecclesiastical attempts to halt private warfare. Some later sects—especially the Anabaptists, Quakers, Moravians, Dukhobors, and Mennonites—have elevated nonresistance to a doctrinal position.

Another motivating force in pacifism has been humanitarianism and the humanitarian outrage at the destruction caused by war. Economic motives have also played a part in pacifist arguments; the pacifists condemn the economic waste of war, which they claim is avoidable. International cooperation and pacifism are closely connected, and pacifists usually advocate international agreements as a way to insure peace. Pacifism is also closely connected with movements for international disarmament.

Pacifism in the Nineteenth Century

Modern pacifism began early in the 19th cent., with peace societies that were formed in New York (1815), Massachusetts (1815), and Great Britain (1816). Other countries followed, and societies were established in France and Switzerland not long afterward. In 1828 William Ladd, one of the early pacifists, welded the many local societies that had been established in the United States into the American Peace Society. Soon more radical pacifists came to the fore, and the peace movement in the United States became connected with other causes under the leadership of such men as Elihu Burritt and William Lloyd Garrison. However, Garrison later abandoned his pacifism and advocated war to end slavery.

The first international peace congress met in London in 1843, marking the earliest attempt to organize on an international scale. Both the Mexican War and the Crimean War checked development temporarily, and the Civil War completely destroyed for the moment the peace movement in the United States. After the Civil War the movement reappeared in new forms, influenced strongly by the internationalists. The efforts of Frédéric Passy in France and of Sir William Randal Cremer in Great Britain led to the foundation of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in 1892. The International Peace Bureau was founded at Bern, Switzerland in 1892. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize (see Nobel, Alfred Bernhard) did much to encourage pacifist thought. Even the Franco-Prussian and Spanish-American wars did not check the spread of peace agitation.

Pacifism in the Twentieth Century

The peace societies, the international organizations, and the Hague Conferences of the 19th cent., were all powerless to check the rush of events to World War I. Although the percentage of conscientious objectors was small, after the war the peace movement reappeared with greater vigor than before, and, in spite of increased nationalism throughout the world, a concerted effort toward peace was made not only in the peace congresses but also in such agitation as the pacifist resolution (1933) of the Students' Union at Oxford.

During the 1920s and early 30s pacifism enjoyed an upsurge; the doctrine of nonresistance as applied in India by Mohandas K. Gandhi gained attention and respect for the movement. The hopes placed in the League of Nations, however, failed to materialize, and some pacifists placed their trust in isolationism and appeasement as events led to World War II. This time the number of conscientious objectors in the United States and Great Britain was larger than in World War I.

After World War II broken international contacts were again restored; a world pacifist conference projected for 1949 in India was postponed because of the assassination of Gandhi. At its meeting in 1948 the World Council of Churches was unable to reach agreement in regard to pacifism and the church. Although pacifists were not very active in the United States during the Korean War in the early 1950s, this was not the case during the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 70s; pacifists and other antiwar groups joined together for several major protest marches in Washington, D.C. and other cities. Recent pacifist movements have tended to concentrate their efforts on urging unilateral or multilateral disarmament and the cessation of nuclear testing (see disarmament, nuclear).

Prominent Pacifists

The presence of ardent pacifists among the prominent figures in the literary and artistic worlds has had an effect in spreading the aims of the movement. The writings of Bertha von Suttner and of Ludwig Quidde demonstrate how pacifism may be espoused in fictional writing. Apart from such statesmen as Aristide Briand, William Jennings Bryan, Frank Kellogg, and Ramsay MacDonald, among other notable names in pacifism are Leo Tolstoy, Jane Addams, Élie Ducommun, Guglielmo Ferrero, Albert Gobat, Alfred H. Love, David Starr Jordan, Sir Norman Angell, Nicholas Murray Butler, Philip Noel-Baker, Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King, Jr., A. J. Muste, Staughton Lynd, and Dr. Benjamin Spock. Among the many agencies and associations that have been organized for the advancement of world peace are the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, War Resisters International, and International Peace Bureau.

Bibliography

See D. Martin, Pacifism (1965); P. Brock, Pacifism in the United States (1968) and Twentieth-Century Pacifism (1970); R. Seeley, The Handbook of Non-violence (1986); D. Brown, Biblical Pacifism (1986).

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13 of the Best Books and Articles on: Pacifism

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Political Pacifism, in Social Theory and Practice » Read Now
by Andrew Alexandra. 18 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
2.

Personal Pacifism, in Theological Studies » Read Now
by Kenneth W. Kemp. 18 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
3.

The Origins of War Prevention: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1730-1854 » Read Now
by Martin Ceadel. 592 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

This book makes an original contribution to international relations and British politics. It identifies for the first time the dominant pre-modern theory of international relations, which fatalistically assumed that war was beyond human control. It then shows how this theory was undermined from the...
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This book makes an original contribution to international relations and British politics. It identifies for the first time the dominant pre-modern theory of international relations, which fatalistically assumed that war was beyond human control. It then shows how this theory was undermined from the 1730s onwards, with the consequence that a debate began about how best to prevent war in which a vocal minority argued that war as an institution for settling disputes could be abolished. Britain led the way in this repudiation of fatalism and exploration of pacific alternatives: it produced the world's first peace movement (which appeared in the mid-1790s as a response to the French wars) and the first enduring national peace association (the Peace Society, founded in 1816 and active for nearly a century); and it was the first counbtry to allow peace thinking to enter its political mainstream. This book, the first to make use of the Peace Society's records, fills a major gap in the historiography of British politics.
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4.

Imagining Peace: A History of Early English Pacifist Ideas, 1340-1560 » Read Now
by Ben Lowe. 362 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...treated in other studies, especially the "pacifism" of late-fourteenth-century writers and...R. F. Yeager, "Pax Poetica: On the Pacifism of Chaucer and Gower," Studies in...
5.

Patriotic Pacifism: Waging War on War in Europe, 1815-1914 » Read Now
by Sandi E. Cooper. 336 pgs.

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Despite the liberalized reconfiguration of civil society and political practice in nineteenth-century Europe, the right to make foreign policy, devise alliances, wage war and negotiate peace remained essentially an executive prerogative. Citizen challenges to the exercise of this power grew slowly...
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Despite the liberalized reconfiguration of civil society and political practice in nineteenth-century Europe, the right to make foreign policy, devise alliances, wage war and negotiate peace remained essentially an executive prerogative. Citizen challenges to the exercise of this power grew slowly. Drawn from the educated middle classes, peace activists maintained that Europe was a single culture despite national animosities; that Europe needed rational inter-state relationships to avoid catastrophe; and that internationalism was the logical outgrowth of the nation-state, not its subversion. In this book, Cooper explores the arguments of these "patriotic pacifists" with emphasis on the remarkable international peace movement that grew between 1889 and 1914. While the first World War revealed the limitations and dilemmas of patriotic pacifism, the shape, if not substance, of many twentieth-century international institutions was prefigured in nineteenth-century continental pacifism.
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6.

A World without War: How U.S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I » Read Now
by Frances H. Early. 272 pgs.

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7.

The Peace Reform in American History » Read Now
by Charles Debenedetti. 246 pgs.

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8.

Harder Than War: Catholic Peacemaking in Twentieth-Century America » Read Now
by Patricia McNeal. 318 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...Dorothy Day Mother of American Catholic Pacifism 29 3 World War II and the...of this study is to document the growth of pacifism, nonviolence, and nuclear pacifism within...
9.

Socialism and Pacifism: Historical Relations, Value Homologies, and Implications of Recent Political Developments, or the Return of History, in Peace and Conflict » Read Now
by Ernst L. Moerk. 21 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Socialism and Pacifism: Historical Relations, Value Homologies...causal model that relates socialism to pacifism or nonviolence. The two...
10.

Acquisition and Transmission of Pacifist Mentalities in Sweden, in Peace and Conflict » Read Now
by Ernst L. Moerk. 17 pgs.

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...cultural evolution from bellicosity to pacifism is analyzed by applying psychological...change from early bellicosity to late pacifism is exceptionally profound and...
11.

Pacifism and the Eastern Martial Arts, in Philosophy East & West » Read Now
by Allan Back, Daeshik Kim. 23 pgs.

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...Allan Back and Daeshik Kim Pacifism and the Eastern martial arts In this...there is a positive relation between pacifism and the Eastern martial arts. We shall...The latter...
12.

The Politics of John Dewey (Chap. 7 "Pacifism and the Outlawry of War") » Read Now
by Gary Bullert. 219 pgs.

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Bullert explores the development of Dewey's political philosophy by investigating how his social actions illustrate the emerging principles and values he sought to instill.
13.

The Thought of Reinhold Niebuhr ("Niebuhr's Early Pacifism" begins on p. 215) » Read Now
by Gordon Harland. 302 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...Seven: WAR AND PEACE 214 1. Niebuhrs Early Pacifism 215 2. Critique and Controversy 217 3...Specifically Niebuhr means the alliance between Christian pacifism and political...